The old season just ended. Let the new season begin . . .
Ten months from now, the Olympic Winter Games are scheduled to begin in Milano-Cortina, Italy. Ten months is practically enough time to build a ski team from scratch: to cure lingering illnesses, to heal nagging injuries, to initiate new training strategies, to fix any technique foibles, even to learn new secrets for waxing and ski prep. If only Norway and Sweden would stand still long enough to give the rest of us a chance to catch up!
On one fine day, not too long from now, an Olympic medal will be draped around the neck of some blissfully-tearful ski-hero. Who will it be? And how will they get there? Athletes fortunate enough to collect an Olympic medal will be those who have prepared specifically for that particular event, on that one fine day. They won’t be the athletes who hope to be the very best on every other day. That’s the dilemma of World Cup competitions and Olympic competitions being contested within the same season. It’s nearly impossible to win it all. While Team USA has been learning how to keep skiers (like Jessie Diggins) going for an entire season, Norway and Sweden seem to be concentrating on how best to prepare their top athletes for peak performances on important days. For Norway, it’s a process that began back in the 1990’s as they prepared for the Olympic Winter games hosted by Lillehammer in 1994. It was a systematic, technological, and scientific effort, a program taking place cooperatively across all sports. Norway really wanted to capture gold medals in front of the home crowd. And, boy, did they ever . . . winning the most medals of any nation (26), including near-sweeps of the men’s endurance events (cross country, nordic combined, and speedskating, though Norwegian athletes found themselves outside the medals in biathlon). Though doubters remain, those Norwegian victories were considered “clean,” even in an era when victories by Russian athletes (who won most of the events that Norway did not) were looked upon with considerable suspicion. One way or another, Norway learned how to win, and how to prepare singularly gifted athletes for great performances at crucial moments. It’s a practice they still follow, a culture they still possess. Neighboring rival, Sweden, has followed close behind.
The race for any World Cup Crystal Globe is an endurance test, a balancing act, a complex mathematical equation. Back when World Cups were dominated by the likes of Martin Jonsrud Sundby and Marit Bjoergen, it seemed like almost every skier would race almost every event . . . making the season-long World Cup competition one that truly identified the “best skier” in any given year. But that was also an era when no one really dominated specific events. Then came Therese Johaug, and every Distance event was Johaug winning by a mile. Then came Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, and every other World Cup Sprint competitor was racing for second place, at best. Then came the Covid-affected seasons (we may still be in those seasons) when anyone who was sick was expected to stay home. Then came the all-important Trondheim World Championships where many Norwegian and Swedish skiers were so focused on winning World Championship titles that they all but abandoned the World Cup, using it as little more than a training tool, picking and choosing which events to enter, and more often choosing to stay home to train. The “one fine day” strategy requires a different sort of focus, one certain to be repeated next season when the world turns its attention to the Olympic Winter Games and the medals awarded there.
The Russia Question
And then there’s the elephant in the room—what about Russia? If those athletes are allowed back in the mix, then the competitive deck gets completely reshuffled. FIS and IOC are both actively reconsidering their policies that exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from Olympic and World Cup competition while their nations remain engaged in the invasion of Ukraine. It remains possible that some of those athletes will be allowed to return to Olympic competition in Cortina as individuals (representing no nation) or as members of a “Unified Team” comprised of Russian/Belarusian athletes, but competing under no flag and standing on Olympic podiums to the playing of the Olympic hymn rather than their national anthems. But which athletes would be allowed to return? IOC has made it clear it won’t be an open door for everyone. Evidently, any who are in the military and/or who voice support for Putin’s war will not be allowed to compete. The top two Russian prospects—Alexander Bolshunov and Natalya Neprayeva—have been visible and vocal supporters of Putin’s belligerent policies. Maybe if they recant, we’ll see them at the starting line in Cortina. Someone should check to see if they have their fingers crossed.
Ironically, this same “Unified Team” or “Russian Olympic Committee Team” solution was offered to Russian athletes in the aftermath of the state-sponsored doping debacle staged by Russia at the Sochi Olympics. In Olympic Games that followed, Russian athletes were allowed to compete, but only if they were “clean.” Frankly, if we knew which athletes were truly clean, the list of entrants might look decidedly different regardless of which nation those athletes come from. But that’s a topic for a different article . . .
Illness, injury, fatigue all play large roles in the dynamic of any World Cup season. Athletes who race to stay sharp risk getting sick, injured, or burned out. Athletes who rest to stay fresh (safe at home where they’ll avoid getting sick) risk becoming athletically flat. Training can never provide the same stresses and athletic rewards as racing, so athletes can be expected to line up for World cup races—maybe just not all of them. 2026 will be an Olympic season; will anyone bother to contest the Tour de Ski? Will anyone care about the Crystal Globes? Will fans nervously follow the mounting accumulation of World Cup points? Or will those World Cup races merely serve as a training ground for the more important races to take place on Olympic race courses?
The FIS 2025-2026 World Cup schedule has not yet been published. All we really know is that the Olympic schedule has been confirmed. This summer, FasterSkier will cover probable situations and likely contenders in all twelve of the scheduled Olympic cross country events. The Olympic cross country skiing schedule will look like this:
Olympic Winter Games, Milano-Cortina 2026
Saturday February 7—Women’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon
Sunday February 8—Men’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon
Tuesday February 10—Men’s and Women’s Sprint Classic
Thursday February 12—Women’s 10km Freestyle
Friday February 13—Men’s 10km Freestyle
Saturday February 14—Women’s 4 x 7.5km Relay
Sunday February 15—Men’s 4 x 7.5km Relay
Wednesday February 18—Men’s and Women’s Team Sprint Freestyle
Saturday February 21—Men’s 50km Mass Start Classic
Sunday February 22—Women’s 50km Mass Start Classic
Olympic contenders will be training for one fine day—when sun will shine and tracks will glisten, when the race will unfold and their fitness will take them to the front, when finish lines will be crossed and arms will be raised in celebration, when medals will be awarded and anthems will be played, when flags will wave and tears will flow. Just ten months from now, on one fine day.
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.
