The FIS Cross Country World Cup season is long and exhausting, and the performers in the World Cup circus are always at risk of illness, injury, overtraining, fatigue. They travel in planes, they live in hotel rooms, they eat in restaurants: all the worst ways to preserve health and wellness. And the world continues to be inundated with lingering pandemic viruses that take advantage of our now-maskless society. It’s no wonder so many of them get sick. That creates a situation certain to affect any season-long championship race, including the arduous slog that is the FIS Cross Country World Cup season that ends with the awarding of Crystal Globes.
Winning a World Cup Crystal Globe is always about who shows up, and who fails to show up . . . always. And that sort of regular athletic attendance is not a thing that can be predicted before the season begins. Every skier imagines being able to attend most races; the season’s training program is basically reliant on that sort of consistency (few skiers would be confident enough to enter important races with “training” being their only preparation). Missing races can totally screw up an athlete’s training plan; the time spent in recovery from illness can have devastating effects, as well. Taking time off to rest is a risk. Taking time off for sickness can be a disaster. But remaining committed to entering every single World Cup event (especially an event as exhausting as the points-rich Tour de Ski) is a sure way to get sick, to get tired, to get injured. The winner of any World Cup Crystal Globe is the one who makes it the farthest while still managing to ski fast and consistent. It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to do . . . throw a World Championship (hosted in Norway) into the mix, and sit back and watch the circus melt down. In the end, the relief and jubilation on the faces of every skier who won a Crystal Globe is an indication that they realize their seasons could’ve turn out very differently.
Women’s Sprint
Jasmi Joensuu (FIN) was consistently one of the fastest Sprint qualifiers during the World Cup season, but she stood on a Sprint podium only once during that entire campaign. Had Sweden’s top sprinters not been sick, injured, or otherwise absent so often during the season, there’s virtually no way that Joensuu would have taken home a Crystal Globe. She’s perhaps the luckiest World Cup winner ever, though there’s no taking away from her the ability to show up and sprint fairly well at every single event. No one else did that, so Joensuu keeps the Cup.
Men’s Sprint
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (NOR) won every sprint event he entered this season. It seemed like he won the Sprint Globe with ease, but consider that he had still not secured the Crystal Globe until the very last weekend of Sprint competitions. Had Klaebo failed to qualify in that last event (normal human beings are at risk of such a disaster befalling them), and had Erik Valnes won the final event, Klaebo would’ve gone home empty handed. It’s hard to believe things turned out that close.
Men’s Distance
Simen Hegstad Krueger is a fantastic distance competitor. World Champion, Olympic Champion, Norwegian National Champion: he’s done all kinds of things that not even Klaebo has accomplished (at least, not prior to Klaebo’s unprecedented run of wins at the 2025 World Championships). In 2025, Krueger was able to piece together enough great performances in Distance races—especially in those races from which Klaebo and his teammate, Harald Oestberg Amundsen, were absent—to amass an insurmountable collection of World Cup points. Klaebo could’ve challenged him, Amundsen could’ve beaten him, but only if Klaebo and Amundsen were willing to risk exhausting themselves while preparing for the World Championships. Klaebo’s math seemed to suggest to him that he couldn’t win it all. Something had to give: that something was his pursuit of the Distance globe. Amundsen knew he couldn’t win it all (both the Overall World Cup and a World Championship title). In order for him to grab something memorable in 2025, he’d gamble on going all-in for the World Championships (a plan that ultimately didn’t work out). What Klaebo and Amundsen chose to leave on the table was scooped up by a more-than-capable Krueger.
Women’s Distance
Therese Johaug went home to train, Frida Karlsson went home injured and sick. Jessie Diggins somehow managed to race through injury in protecting a lead that few expected her to have. She secured this Distance Crystal Globe, but at what cost? Certainly, she underperformed at the World Championships (an event that rewards those who prepare for big performances on specific days). Diggins has shown that she can grind out a long season. But she’s also shown that she and her team have not developed the ability to be individually huge on huge individual days. We’ll see if Team USA figures out how to put Diggins in contention next year, one in which the broader American public cares only about Olympic success.
Men’s Overall
It’s funny: Klaebo actually wrapped up the Overall World Cup title before he secured the Sprint title. That doesn’t even seem possible, but that’s what happened. Of course, Klaebo may have benefitted from the revolving door of Norwegian entrants during the season; many of his domestic rivals elected to go home to rest while Klaebo was chasing podiums. In the end, Klaebo ran the table, and no one else’s preparations or strategies really mattered at all. The best skier of all time skied like the best skier of all time. Still, the skier who has most consistently flummoxed the best skier of all time is training and racing in exile over behind the Russian border. Alexander Bolshunov may well find himself back in the World Cup and Olympic mix next season. If FIS and the IOC make decisions allowing that (they’re considering it right now), then the seat at the top of the ski world could find itself hotly contested.
Women’s Overall
When we add up the best overall performances in Women’s World Cup cross country skiing, those definitely belonged to Jessie Diggins. She earned podium positions in every discipline, she raced her heart out at every venue, and she somehow managed to overcome an injury that could’ve derailed her entire season (and maybe seasons to come). She’s a truly remarkable athlete . . . but also a remarkably lucky one, as her three World Cup Overall Crystal Globes will attest. She was not the best skier in the world in any of those seasons, but she was the one who was willing to do things the way that FIS intended: show up every week, race hard every week, stand on a podium every week. That’s what FIS wants: headlines, ad revenue, and broadcast ratings. Jessie Diggins is the skier who makes those things happen. The Johaug’s and Andersson’s and Karlsson’s of the world are willing to let her have those victories in return for what seem to be considered bigger prizes: World Championship and Olympic gold. Next season, there’s an Olympic Winter Games on the calendar. It’s likely to be the last Olympics for most of those contenders. How will they prepare for it? How will they respond to the challenges they’ll face along the way? And, during an Olympic season, will any of them care about World Cup results at all?
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.
