U.S. Ski Team Announces Tour de Ski Team

Dear Cross Country Community,

We are pleased to announce the Team for Period 2 of the 2024-25 World Cup season – the Tour de Ski:

2024-25 Tour de Ski

Men

John Hagenbuch                       Objective          24-25 Overall SuperTour Leader

Gus Schumacher                       Objective          9^th 24-25 Distance World Cup

Ben Ogden                                Objective          10^th 24-24 Sprint World Cup

Zanden McMullen                     Objective          19^th 24-25 Distance World Cup

Jack Young                                Objective          24^th 24-24 Sprint World Cup

JC Schoonmaker                        Objective          31^st 24-24 Sprint World Cup

Luke Jager                                Discretion         1^st SuperTour Sprint F, 1^st SuperTour 20 km C

 

Women

Nina Seemann                          Objective          24-25 Overall SuperTour Leader

Jessie Diggins                            Objective          24-25 Overall World Cup Leader

Sophia Laukli                            Objective          17^th 24-25 Distance World Cup

Rosie Brennan                          Objective          18^th 24-25 Distance World Cup

Julia Kern                                  Objective          27^th 24-24 Sprint World Cup

Alayna Sonnesyn                       Discretion         22^nd Davos Sprint F

 

The Working Group decided not to nominate additional athletes to the Tour de Ski due to the logistic, support demand, and health concerns surrounding the Tour, as well as to create a balanced and fair selection platform at the U.S. Nationals, where athletes currently performing at comparable levels can demonstrate their abilities.  The ski service demands of the Tour alone are massive, with each athlete competing 7 times in 9 days, including one Skiathlon, and requiring world-class skis each day to compete for podiums.  The Working Group views the Tour de Ski as platform for elite performance and not a primary development opportunity.  Individual World Cups are much better designed for developing athletes and we intend to populate starts much more generously in the remainder of the World Cup season.

The above discretionary selections were nominated by a 15-person working group that included:

James Southam                         Athlete Rep.

Ida Sargent                               Athlete Rep.

Cami Thompson-Graves            Dartmouth College

Andy Newell                             Bridger Ski Foundation

Eliška Albrigtsen                        University of Alaska Fairbanks

Erik Flora                                  Alaska Pacific University

Chad Salmela                            Team Birkie

Peter Holmes                            SVSEF Gold Team

Pepa Miloucheva                      Craftsbury GRP

Maria Stuber                            SMS T2

Sophie Caldwell Hamilton          AVSC

Kristen Bourne                          U.S. Ski Team

Jason Cork                                U.S. Ski Team

Matt Whitcomb                        U.S. Ski Team

Chris Grover                             U.S. Ski Team

 

The nominations were then approved by a discretionary selection review group comprised of:

Tyler Kornfield                          U.S. Ski & Snowboard Athlete Rep

Anouk Patty                              U.S. Ski & Snowboard Chief of Sport

Bryan Fish                                 U.S. Ski & Snowboard Development Director

 

The above discretionary selection process will be repeated for each period of World Cup this coming season.  As always, if you have questions or concerns about this process, feel free to contact me directly.

 

Sincerely,

Chris Grover

Cross Country Program Director, U.S. Ski Team

chris.grover@usskiandsnowboard.org