The first time Rosie Brennan stepped onto a World Cup podium, she was holding a pair of classic skis. That was in Lillehammer eight years ago, December 2015, when she skied the scramble leg in Team USA’s third place finish. Since then, there has been more team revelry, plenty of skate podiums, some fast-starts, some near misses, but never an individual classic podium. Above all, in the intervening time, there has been perseverance. Stride for stride, season after season, working in muted humility half a world away until the day that her classic skiing would make an entire ski community roar.
On Saturday—under the Arctic skies in Ruka, Finland Saturday—that day came. A breakthrough and a milestone: Rosie Brennan’s first individual classic World Cup podium. She took second place in the 10 k Classic interval start, just five seconds off winner, Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, and another five seconds ahead of third place, Frida Karlsson (SWE).
“[It’s been] a lot of hours of training, technique, and getting stronger,” said Brennan in post-race comments to FasterSkier. “I love classic skiing, and it’s been one those things I’ve been striving for because I knew it was possible.”
Brennan’s teammate, Jessie Diggins (USA), skied strongly to an 11th place finish. Other American finishers included Novie McCabe in 30th, Sophia Laukli 44th, and Julia Kern 50th. Canadian finishers included Katherine Stewart-Jones 25th, and Amelia Wells 53rd.
Through ten kilometers of punchy hills, fresh, frigid snow, and taut time checks, Brennan persisted. To boil down this career milestone to “Brennan persisted” is purposeful understatement. There’s been budding momentum for Brennan in classic skiing for a couple of seasons, but her biggest progressions up the World Cup rankings have come with heartbreaks that cut the other way. During 2023’s Tour de Ski she finished fourth in a 15 k classic mass start in Val di Fiemme: her best finish ever. But, she lost a ski toss to Kertuu Niskanen (FIN) for the podium. Later that month during the World Championship 30 k, Brennan gritted her way into the final kilometer in medal contention before finishing in fifth place. She remarked at the time that she “[was] feeling a mix of everything. I’m feeling I’m getting good at this fourth, fifth, sixth place situation.”
At the time, Brennan’s close friend and former teammate Sadie Bjornsen said to FasterSkier’s Nat Herz that, “Ninety-nine percent of the time you’re fourth. That’s just the reality of life. And the way you keep coming back from that is what is really inspiring.” Adding that, “It’s such a theme of Rosie’s story: Knock me down, I’ll bend. But I don’t break.”
The race Brennan skied Saturday was extraordinary at first glance. For Brennan though, it was typical: she brought the special characteristics that, after many years of practice, are rising to both the top of people’s minds, and the top of the results sheet. After many seasons’ persistence, her patience is paying off. The first classic podium of Brennan’s career comes at the opening of a new season, and seems to open up a world of possibility for Brennan and her teammates. Stifel U.S. Ski Team Head Coach, Matt Whitcomb, commented to FasterSkier that “it was emotional, perhaps, the most amazing race she’s ever put together.”
Women’s 10 k Classic Interval Start
Andersson’s own breakthrough at Ruka came a year ago when the Swede won her first classic World Cup race in last year’s 10 k interval start. A year later, she returned to Ruka’s start line having been crowned World Champion (twice), and looking to follow up on her teammate Emma Ribom’s own Ruka repeat in yesterday’s sprint.
By the end of the first lap on Ruka’s three-lap, 3.3 k course, Andersson had opened up a small but steady gap over Frida Karlsson and Rosie Brennan. Her finishing kick on the Ruka stadium climb that featured so significantly in Saturday’s Classic Sprint races confirmed the drive of her efforts through the entire ten kilometers, and earned Andersson a repeat victory as Ruka’s 10 k Classic champion.
Andersson wore bib 50, which meant her time splits came at the tail-end of the main group of competitors. The field was especially stretched today as Linn Svahn (SWE), wearing bib 5 and on her way to a top ten finish, did much of the early pace-setting. German Katharina Hennig, bib 34, was the first in the field to match her efforts, and from that point on, the field was swapping seconds from checkpoint-to-checkpoint. Close to Hennig in the early-goings was Jessie Diggins, wearing bib 40, who would hold a strong position throughout the course and come home to finish 11th place, the second American on the day.
Karlsson, wearing bib 44, would consistently outkick Katerina Hennig’s (GER) efforts into the time-checks, and when Brennan, bib 46, posted split times in and around Karlsson and Hennig, the race’s podium picture began to become clear. Karlsson enjoyed a one second lead over Brennan at the 5 k mark, but Brennan would close gap to the Swede, edging her out for second place.
The tightly-grouped finishing times of Saturday’s 10 k bode well for a tight pack tomorrow as Ruka’s World Cup opening weekend concludes with a 20 k mass start skate race on Sunday.
Women’s 10 k Classic Interval Start RESULTS
Ben Theyerl
Ben Theyerl was born into a family now three-generations into nordic ski racing in the US. He grew up skiing for Chippewa Valley Nordic in his native Eau Claire, Wisconsin, before spending four years racing for Colby College in Maine. He currently mixes writing and skiing while based out of Crested Butte, CO, where he coaches the best group of high schoolers one could hope to find.
