LAHTI, Finland — While Monday marked a rest day for skiers competing in the 2017 Nordic World Championships, FasterSkier took the opportunity to sit down and chat with Sadie Bjornsen of the U.S. Ski Team, one day after she earned bronze with teammate Jessie Diggins in the women’s 1.3-kilometer classic team sprint. Not only was it Bjornsen’s first-career World Championships medal, it was the first for the U.S. women’s program in a World Championships classic race....
The Norwegian women were back to their usual selves with skis to match as Ingvild Flugstad Østberg and Marit Bjørgen won the classic team sprint for Østberg's first gold, Bjørgen's fifth, and the team's first-ever team sprint win at the Olympics.
After qualifying in third out of a stacked semifinal, the U.S. women's team-sprint duo of Sophie Caldwell and Kikkan Randall went on to place eighth in the final of Wednesday's Olympic classic team sprint, two places back from their previous best of sixth at the 2010 Olympics.
The Canadian women missed out on advancing to the final by one place on Sunday, finishing seventh nearly 18 seconds behind sixth, while the top six teams made the World Cup 6 x 1.3 k classic team sprint final in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.