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.
Norway made it look too easy. Klaebo claimed his fourth gold in as many races, and an entire ski-nation breathed a collective sigh of relief. There wasn’t really all that much celebrating taking place after a race in which anything other than an easy win would’ve been an utter surprise.
For context, when asked in pre-race interviews what his team’s “plan” was, Switzerland’s Janik Riebli almost laughed. “Go as fast as possible from start to finish,” he grinned. That’s the situation for all but the few elite teams. The Norway’s of the world may have a plan going into the race, a strategy they hope to follow. The rest of the world just tries to hang on.
While the Women’s Team Sprint may have involved some position-jockeying and creative pacing strategies, the plan in the Men’s Team Sprint was never in doubt. When your team has a finisher like Klaebo, you just figure out how to deliver him to the vicinity of the finish line, and let him do the rest. Erik Valnes (Klaebo’s teammate) is a truly great sprinter, but his assignment was really just to avoid screwing up. If some other team in the field could find a chink in Valnes’ armor, then there might be a chance for an upset. But any team attempting that strategy could well find themselves blowing up mid-race, and crawling across the finish line with nothing.
It hasn’t been the brightest showing for Team USA at these World Championships. But, the most important competitions in cross country skiing (Olympics, World Championships, etc.) are typically dominated by established ski nations (Norway, Sweden, Russia). The USA still trails pretty far behind those perennial ski-contenders. On the other hand, Gus Schumacher (USA) notched a 9th place and a 13th place in races thus far in these championships. It looks like he could’ve done even better if he had fast skis to race on. If Team USA’s tech team could put Schumacher on a pair of fast skis, then he and his teammate, JC Schoonmaker, could have a chance to shake things up.
Even choosing the USA’s sprint duo may have proven to be a bit of a challenge. This season, the top American Sprinter in World Cup races has often been Ben Ogden (who is also an entirely capable Distance racer), but he hasn’t looked especially sharp in the days leading up to this event. That leaves Schumacher and Schoonmaker to carry the flag in the Team Sprint. It’s an interesting choice to utilize Schumacher in this event, since he’s a possible medal contender in the 50 k Freestyle to be contested in a few days. It will be interesting to see if coaches also choose to place Schumacher in tomorrow’s Team Relay where Team USA is likely to be far removed from medal contention. Schumacher’s participation in that relay could burn all of his matches before he ever gets to the 50 k starting line.
Team Sprint
Klaebo was expected to treat the Team Sprint as just another victory lap. His partner—silver medalist from the 10 k Classic, Erik Valnes—is responsible for keeping Norway in contention, delivering a position to Klaebo for him to outsprint all the other contenders. The early pace made it appear that none of the other teams were willing to take risks. Finland and France marked Valnes’ pace. Everyone else bided their time in a crowded, but calm, pack.
In the exchange zone at the end of Leg 1, the set up was almost comical: Klaebo stood out front awaiting the tag from Valnes, with all the other nations giving Norway a protected halo of space around Klaebo. The rest of the countries were congested into a crowded knot of poles and skis, but no one wanted to be the one who tripped up Norway’s Favorite Son . . . not in front of 30,000 home town fans.
Klaebo had little reason to push the pace in his first leg where he was marked calmly by Richard Jouve (FRA). The field stretched out a bit, but it seemed to be more a result of some skiers struggling with kick wax than the result of pace-making at the front. Enjoying another exchange zone halo of safety, Klaebo tagged Valnes at the front of a loose 12-man pack.
Valnes threw in extra skate strokes (presumably within the rules) over the top of the first hill, creating additional space between himself and Ristomatti Hakkola (FIN). Jules Chappaz (FRA) took over the lead of the chase group as they entered the exchange zone again, some four seconds behind Norway. Shumacher brought Team USA through the exchange in fourth place, still in contention alongside Italy, Finland, and Sweden. Schoonmaker would have his hands full with the likes of Federico Pellegrino (ITA), Edvin Anger (SWE), and Richard Jouve (FRA), but Schoonmaker showed himself to be a cagey racer, short-stepping to set his kick wax on the uphills while other contenders slipped.
Valnes began his last leg with an enormous gap on the field. Team Norway had only to stay on its feet in order to claim gold. Behind them, the rest of the skiing world prepared to duke it out for silver and bronze. Schumacher held his position among Oskar Svensson (SWE), Davide Graz (ITA), Chappaz, and Hakkola. Hakkola accelerated up the final hill to give Finland sole possession of second. They maintained that slim gap into the exchange as Schumacher and Chappaz dueled for third. Svensson faltered in the final meters, leaving Anger with an unfortunate deficit to make up.
Schoonmaker described the final exchange: “I saw Gus coming around the corner in third, and I just got super nervous.” The race for the medals was about to begin. Vuorinen was 1.3 kilometers from a silver medal. He’d give it all he could. Pellegrino, Jouve, and Schoonmaker would settle any remaining questions in their race to the line. And everyone (except the roaring Norwegian fans) seemed to have forgotten about Klaebo, calmly kicking and gliding somewhere far off the front.
As the race topped the final hill, suddenly the medal possibilities were re-shuffled. Pellegrino caught Vuorinen, and Anger charged up from nowhere to put Team Sweden into the medal fight. Schoonmaker and Jouve began to fade.
“I was feeling good and relaxed,” recalled Schoonmaker, “then maybe it was me starting to feel weak, or those other guys starting to feel strong. They just had another gear that I couldn’t really find. I was proud to be in the fight for the medal, but it’s bittersweet to be so close.”
Pellegrino had misjudged the line on the finishing righthand bend earlier in this world Championship week. In this Team Sprint finish, he blew it again—diving to the inside, catching an edge that rocked him back on his heels, and exiting wide after losing his speed. Pellegrino’s error allowed Hakkola back into the sprint, but it was Anger who dismantled them all in the finishing straight, charging forward to claim silver ahead of Hakkola and Pellegrino.
“In the final sprint we know that my strength isn’t equal with either Lauri or Anger,” said Pellegrino. “I tried until the end, and I came out on the wrong side of Anger. He won the classic sprint this year and showed yesterday that he is really strong.”
“But what is important is that Italy today—also in the women’s race—was truly at the top and it was beautiful,” Pellegrino continued. “I’ve been telling these guys for years that if we can maintain the speed and endurance that we have, we can compete in all races, on all courses, and all types of snow, and I’m happy that in this World Championship so far we are demonstrating this.”
For Team Norway, it was a win that the whole skiing world expected. For Klaebo, it was perhaps the least taxing way to win a fourth gold medal on his way to who knows how many? Norway will hope for a repeat performance in the Team relay tomorrow in the hope that a relatively easy relay win will set Klaebo up for an even more historic win in the 50 k. Lost of racing still to come.
2025 World Championship Team Sprint 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.
