FasterSkier’s coverage of this week’s FIS World Championships stands as a proud tribute to an icon of American Skiing, Marty Hall who has generously supported our coverage of international cross country ski events. To learn more about Marty and Kathy Hall’s A Hall Mark of Excellence Award, please contact info@fasterskier.com. We’ll miss you, Marty.
How wonderful it is that cross country skiing remains an outdoor sport. In old sports newsreels, we can view images of earlier eras when “sport” was something we went outside to do: tennis tournaments, swim meets, speedskating races, figure skating competitions, football games, basketball tournaments, World Series classics: athletes played, raced, competed in the rain, the snow, the wind, the searing heat of mid-summer and the biting cold of mid-winter. Athletes needed to endure the weather, to judge the conditions, to play the wind. Cross country skiing is still one of the few remaining outdoor sports, and thank goodness that it is.
Sometimes, though, these games, matches, contests, and races get delayed on account of dangerous weather. We get it: there’s no sense racing if the wind is liable to topple trees, power lines, and festive inflatable finish line arches onto the heads of innocent racers and spectators. As this week’s World Championships in Trondheim has shown, coastal Norway is the home of inclement weather. Rain, sleet, snow, wind: all have tested the racers in nearly every event (and driven already-nervous ski technicians practically to despair). But when Thursday morning dawned with such bluster and blow, organizers elected to move back the start time of the Men’s Team Relay by a couple of hours, the primary effect of which being that North American-based ski reporters got out of bed earlier than was really necessary. No harm done, no race results affected. The delay had the desired effect, allowing the early morning winds to abate, and the conditions to settle. On with the relays!
Relay events are funny things; even the most outstanding individual can never really claim sole credit for their team’s high placing, though one unfortunate individual may take the blame for any particularly poor result. Relay medals also come with something of a career-asterisk, somehow being valued less than individual race accomplishments even when entire nations take greatest pride in their team having claimed gold in overcoming their fiercest rivals. Sweden and Norway know what we’re talking about . . . though either nation’s cross country Team relay remains annually at risk of being upended by the Italys and Finlands and Frances of the world. No country’s relay is invincible . . . not even Norway’s (though with a team like Erik Valnes, Martin Loewstroem Nyenget, Harald Oestberg Amundsen, and Johannes Klaebo, they can certainly look invincible). Sweden is out for vindication, Federico Pellegrino has whipped his Italian teammates into a confident frenzy, and the merry optimism of the French team is sure to see them pushing toward the front.
Finland’s Risomatti Hakola expressed what all the nations seemed to feel about the Team Relay: “It’s the main important race during these championships,” he said. “So we are doing our best . . . Of course, we would dream about medals!”
Team Relay
All it takes is one snapped pole, one careless fall, or one missed assignment in the wax trailer, and Norway could find itself vulnerable. Those are the sorts of things that often happen in ski races. Italy, Sweden, and France will be eager, but the rosters of each of those teams has suffered the loss of numerous relay stalwarts . . . as though Norway needed even greater advantages!
The job for Norway’s Valnes was the same as his mission in the Sprint Relay (in which he teamed with Klaebo to win gold): lead off the effort, don’t screw up, deliver a lead to his teammates. The job for lead-off skiers from every other nation was nearly as simple, though anything but easy: don’t get dropped.
The 27-team field was quickly whittled down to a pack of 14 teams, led by the steady efforts of Valnes. Finland’s lead-off skier—Niko Ahntola—fell on a high-speed section of lap 1. Suddenly, Finland was out of contention.
Midway through the second lap of Leg 1, Czechia’s Michal Novak came to the front, setting a pace that strung out the front group and reduced the number of contenders to four. Sweden stayed on Norway’s heels, France hung on gamely, though the lead-off skier—Remi Bourdain—appeared to be struggling to find adequate kick. USA and Canada maintained placings in the top ten, but were substantially gapped by the leaders.
Valnes appeared patient, but when Novak began to slow Valnes moved to the front. And, just like that, the race for the gold medal was all but decided. Without even looking like he was trying, Valnes opened a gap ahead of Novak and Sweden’s Truls Gisselman who began dropping back toward the other teams. Team Norway would begin a four-leg victory lap while the rest of the world squabbled over the lesser medals.
Novak continued to ski well, surrendering only seven seconds to Norway at the tag from Leg 1 to Leg 2. Sweden’s Gisselman faltered badly (he may have suffered a fall outside the view of he broadcast cameras) in the final stretch of his relay leg, leaving his team with a deficit of 22 seconds to the leaders.
Norway’s Leg 2 skier—Nyenget—simply skied away, leaving behind him a re-established group who would battle each other (no longer involved in the pursuit of Norway). The new group fluctuated between 7-10 nations including France, Sweden, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, and the USA.
In the second lap of Leg 2, Federico Pellegrino (ITA) went to the front, his pace detaching Zak Ketterson (USA) from the group. The silver/bronze group was reduced to five teams: Italy, Switzerland, France, Sweden and Canada. There was still plenty to race for, and nearly 20 more kilometers in which to decide the results.
Nyenget pumped his arms to excite the Trondheim crowd as he tagged Norway’s Leg 3 skier, Amundsen. Norway exited the stadium with a lead of 30 seconds over Italy, Sweden, and France. Canada’s Antoine Cyr had difficulty negotiating the righthand curve before the exchange zone, but Canada remained in contention within the top five teams as Leg 3 skier, Max Hollmann, benefited from fast skis and the conservative strategy of the group to race each other rather than to chase Norway.
The relay’s final leg saw a group of five comprised of sprint-talent for most of the nations involved. Edvin Anger was eager to bring Sweden a medal, as was Valerio Grond for Switzerland. Klaebo was off the front where he could ski very easily and conservatively toward his fifth gold medal of these championships. Presumably, he’d love to take it easy in order to conserve energy for the championship finale, the 50 k Freestyle Mass Start, to be contested in two days. Years ago, in the World Speedskating Championships, Norwegian Rolf Falk Larsen, had mathematically wrapped up the title by virtue of having won the first three distances (500m, 1500m, and 5000m). He needed only to finish the 10,000 meters in order to be crowned World Champion. To the dismay of the crowd, he lazily mailed-in the final race, easing around the 25 laps of the track, making no effort to truly compete at the distance. He claimed the World Title, but Norway never forgave him. Ever conscious of his place in skiing history, Klaebo wouldn’t want to suffer a similar fate, so he jump-skated the final hills of Leg 4, whipping the Norwegian crowd into an ecstatic frenzy. Grabbing a Norwegian flag from a strategically-placed team staffer, Klaebo flew down the final hill into the cheering throng that filled Granasen stadium. Norway claimed its 13th straight World Championship Team Relay win. For Klaebo: five races, five gold medals, 50 kilometers to go.
A minute behind Klaebo, Grond and Anger duked it out on the final uphill. Anger led down the subsequent slope to the finish, allowing Grond to slingshot out of the draft and lead through the infamous righthand curve. Both skiers bobbled on the final turn, but Grond was able to hold off Anger to the finish line: silver for Switzerland, bronze for Sweden. Canada delivered a fifth place finish, while USA out-dueled Germany for seventh.
Team Canada commented on their accomplishment: “To come fifth in the world—to match what we did in Planica—with also a different team I think it shows the strength of our team. A super good day.”
Norway will celebrate the achievement. “This was the greatest time skiing of my life,” beamed Nyenget. “It was incredible!”
“I feel like this is the most important race during the world Championship,” said Klaebo. “In Norway, there’s is one thing that’s good enough, and that’s winning . . . I think all of us felt the pressure today.”
2025 World Championship Team Relay RESULTS
John Teaford
John Teaford—the Managing Editor of FasterSkier — has been the coach of Olympians, World Champions, and World Record Holders in six sports: Nordic skiing, speedskating, road cycling, track cycling, mountain biking, triathlon. In his long career as a writer/filmmaker, he spent many seasons as Director of Warren Miller’s annual feature film, and Producer of adventure documentary films for Discovery, ESPN, Disney, National Geographic, and NBC Sports.
