Jessie Diggins

Our view from the deck!

The last week has been a much-needed break and mini-vacation! Kikkan, her Mom and I stayed in a condo at Squaw Valley and Salomon and the US Ski Team HOOKED US UP with Alpine gear for a couple days of fun skiing in the sun! I am a horrible downhill skier, but love charging runs I have no business being on anyways. It was a super fun time, I totally ignored my coaches advice of “if you’re not on the magic carpet, you’re doing it wrong”, but I didn’t get hurt at all so I’m not in trouble!

Snow melted in some parts but the skiing was still great

I had to include this picture from the Reno airport, below. Slot machines and blinking neon lights all over the place. It made me kind of dizzy getting in from a late flight.

Right off the plane...classy, Reno. Classy.

After Kikkan and I moved out of the condo, my SMS teammates hadn’t arrived in California yet so I spent Easter night crashing the APU house. It was a super fun time – we had this absolutely massive and ridiculously hard easter egg hunt over three houses (with the Craftsbury team) and went Nordic Skiing for the first time in 5 days. Eek! It was weird to have not snapped down my bindings in so long (5 days happens to be the longest break I’ve taken since getting sick mid-summer). But having a nice break, both mentally and physically, was just what I needed!

Pancake breakfast morning (and April Fools jokes) at the APU girls house!

This morning was quite funny…I had totally forgotten that it was April Fools day and so when I got up to make breakfast all the food in the house was gone. Sadie hid it outside. And the girls watered down the coffee and made it cold, but most of the girls were too nice to say “uhh…you guys SUCK at making breakfast” so the joke didn’t get the same effect we were hoping. Darn it.

Old-school waxing style. Gotta love it!

I’m getting quite good at packing up and changing houses by now! So, today I get to move in with my club team (SMS T2), whom I haven’t seen in a LONG time! I can’t wait to hear stories from this winter and see them in person.

Hello, California! I’m in Squaw Valley right now, and Kikkan is taking me “real alpine skiing” for the first time! It’s been a crazy few days; after World Cup finals ended in Falun, the US girls stayed for the Fast and Female event, which was great. Then we spent the night in Stockholm before parting ways and flying home. I was home for about 14 hours, which was basically one looooong layover but was enough to spend good time with my family and spend a night in my own bed! Then I flew out to Cali. So I guess you could say I’m slightly jetlagged and worn out by now. But I’m still really excited to see everyone at finals and get some serious sun exposure.

If you were brave enough to scroll down the page, you’ve probably noticed that this is a pretty long block of writing I’ve got going. That’s because it’s my “season wrap-up post”. I know that the season isn’t really over yet…there’s still the 4 races of spring series and a 30km nationals race, but the World Cup season was, for me, a different entity and one that deserves a post of it’s own. It was, after all, my life for the last 5 months!

I’m definitely pronouncing the season a success. World Championship Gold aside, there were so many great things that happened this year. The team stuck together, supported each other, and had fun. Every girl on our team hit a top-10 and a new career personal best result. Some of us had injuries and worked through them with a great attitude and didn’t miss a step. We hit our team goals of a relay podium and medal at World Champs. We gave back to the community through Fast and Female events, kids clinics and school talks. I got to stand on the top step of the podium with my family there watching. We made a crazy music video as a team while training on the road. Young skiers told me they wanted to get on the US team someday and they were going to keep skiing until they made it.

Not that there weren’t challenges. I got sick twice – two weeks before the Tour de Ski and right after it. The team had one or two down weeks where everyone seemed to hit their “I’m-tired-and-I-just-want-to-go-home” threshold at once. There were days when I wanted so badly to be going to a college party instead of feeling the pressure of racing with the US flag on my back. I had issues with bone spurs on my heels and to take the pressure off, I walked around in backless shoes all winter – a serious fashion issue, to be sure (and my socks never stayed dry). But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. There’s ups and downs to everyone’s job, and I feel so lucky that the good things far outweigh the less awesome parts!

Being on the road for months at a time definitely gives you some crazy experiences; some awesome, some that test your patience, some that really open your eyes and some that make you want to return multiple times. Here are the top 10 things I learned from this year on the road:

1. People keep asking us how our team seems to work so well together, and I think it’s because everyone is committed to one goal, we have fun as a team, and we watch each other’s backs. When you’re with the same group of people most of the year, it’s like your family – you know the best and worst about everyone, and you love them for it. If you’ve got a problem with something….say it, fix it, then get over it, because it’s too long a time on the road to hold grudges!

2. On the topic of people: getting to know the athletes from other teams has been SO fun. Everyone I met was so friendly, and getting to know them was really nice. Some were shy about their english, but I can’t speak more than a couple words in ANY other language, so I’m the one who should be embarrassed, not them!

3. It’s so cool to be traveling to new countries, and seeing new things. However, the one misconception most people have about our jobs and lives on the road is that we get to really explore each place and soak in the culture, which isn’t always the case (unfortunately). When we’re in the same place for at least a week, we usually get time to really check out the town, which I love, but most of the time we’re either supposed to take it easy because walking around for a day isn’t going to make you race fast, and after the race you’re pretty wrecked and tired!

4. Because we don’t have cars (and to be honest, they don’t let me drive the vans anyways!) when we get a chance to get out of the hotel, we do a lot of walking. That’s such a big difference from the US where everyone seems to just drive everywhere…in Europe, you see people biking or simply taking the long way by walking to their destination. I think that’s pretty sweet. It’s probably another reason why there aren’t many obese people in Europe, now that I think of it.

5. I can tell you which airports you’ll probably need to run to your gate in, which have the longest lines (ahem! Amsterdam), and which ones have awesome internet for when you get long layovers (I’m writing this in the MSP airport so kudos to Minnesota).

6. Sometimes it’s pretty sweet to be bopping around from one country to the next, but sometimes the constant travel gets to you and you just want to put down some roots and be in the same country for a few weeks at a time! Luckily, World Champs is a longer race series so we got to really feel at home in Italy.

7. That said (see #5) we’re getting really good at packing up our stuff. Not to brag, but….we can unpack and repack about as fast as my sister folds the laundry.

8. Whoever invented skype deserves a lifetime supply of high fives. Being able to see and talk with my family, especially when I was getting really homesick, was a life saver!

9. After living almost exclusively in hotels for the past 5 months, I know which hotels have great beds and staff, and which ones you end up putting the chairs out in the hallway because there isn’t enough room for both the furniture and your luggage!

10. Jet lag. It’s a thing. I’ve tried telling myself “I don’t believe in jet lag” but wow, my body sure does! Waking up in the middle of the night is such a downer, but you get over it. And that’s why they invented melatonin, right?

Well! There you have it. Now please excuse me, I need to get out the door so I can go alpine skiing! I went yesterday with Kikkan and her Mom, and it was my first time on alpine skis in about 6 years. It was also my first time skiing somewhere other than Afton Alps, which means I’ve never skied on a real mountain before (this is in no way a put-down on Afton Alps. It’s not Minnesota’s fault that there aren’t jagged peaks all over the place!) and I had an awesome time.

We also came to the Tahoe Donner ski club’s pasta feed, and met up with our ski buddies who are here early, and got to meet a bunch of really awesome young skiers. They were super enthusiastic and it’s always fun to see so many people pumped on Cross Country!

Yesterday was our last World Cup race of the year! It feels so good to be done, but there’s still Spring Series and National Champs races back home, so I guess this is kind of a “practice feeling like you’re done” moment.

The best part about the race for me was that I was able to let the stress and expectations go and just have fun with it. I suppose starting as bib 38 helped because I knew that if I had a good day, I could ski my way back into the top-30 and thus into the points, but it would be a challenge. And nothing gets me into a better mindset than a challenge! I caught up to Holly and an Italian girl (Debora), and the three of us skied together changing leads. We started reeling people in and it was cool to be able to ski with a teammate.

It was also great to have a distance race where I felt strong and didn’t come unglued till the very end. And the race ended up being one of my best distance efforts with a 12th place on the day! I moved up to 26th in the finals mini-tour and Holly finished right behind me in 27th. Kikkan led us ladies with 7th, Liz came in 16th, Ida got 37th and Rosie got 43rd. Then….it was time for awards. Kikkan scored 3rd in the Overall World Cup standings, which is a huge thing, and it was really fun to cheer for her!

I promise to get a season wrap-up post up soon, but right now it’s time to go help set up the stadium area for the Fast and Female event we’re having in Falun. If you haven’t heard of these events before, check out the link: http://www.fastandfemale.com/index.asp It’s going to be really fun to meet 100 young Swedish skiers this afternoon!

Wow! A lot has gone down since I last posted. I promise to explain how all the athletes ended up on the evening news and made FIS finally listen to us, but first I’d better wrap up the last two races. 

Racing the 30km at Holmenkollen was a ton of fun. It was a hard course, with a really tough field of athletes, but with thousands of fans lining the course and cheering loud the entire way it was an incredible experience. There were fan clubs for individual athletes, camps running tv’s on generator power out in the woods, and many junior athlete clubs hiking in to spectate for the weekend.

We got to meet another group of Norwegian juniors - they were awesome! (photo by Ofstad)

The WAFFLE LADIES! They are a very essential part of the Norwegian races

For me, the worst part of the race was from 5km to 13.5km. I picked the wrong pair of skis to start on, and wasn’t able to hang with a group as I got dropped on the long decent from Frognerseteren (the high point of the course) to the stadium area. I would have most likely fallen off the pace sooner or later regardless, but it was a bummer to lose them so early. But once I switched to my other pair of skis, I was gliding much better and had also settled into a better pace, and skied in a pack of 3 with a Swede and Norwegian. We traded leads and worked really well together, and I ended up getting the last World Cup point with a 30th place finish, which I’m happy with!

Liz getting some sun outside the Oslo airport!

Then we moved to Stockholm, Sweden, for the start of World Cup Finals. The mini-tour  is made up of a classic city sprint around the palace, then one day off as we move to Falun for a 2.5km skate prologue, a 10km classic mass start, and a 10km skate pursuit start. The city sprint is always a ton of fun because you’re racing around a palace! I didn’t qualify but came closer than I usually do on classic sprints with a 34th place. The highlight of the day was seeing the Sprint Cup Overall awards given out – Kikkan won the Crystal Globe again! And Andy got 5th place, which is super awesome. Congrats guys!

Kik and Andy with their hardware! (photo by Liz)

So, now I can get to the drama. Yesterday all the athletes got to preview the course for finals here in Falun. There’s the famously steep climb called “Mordarbacken”, and usually the decent that follows is fast and scary but relatively safe. However, this year they changed the courses and built a new downhill, one that goes basically down the same hill the ski jump is built on (so imagine how steep that is) and it’s a bunch of s-turns. It’s pretty much a skiercross course, and with narrow fast turns through trees, it’s not only ridiculous and unlike a cross-country course but it’s totally unsafe. Especially in a mass start – if even one person falls it’s likely the entire field would get piled up, and when the Swedes had their Nationals races here a few months ago three racers were sent to the hospital.

Because none of the athletes approved of the course and pretty much everyone was concerned about safety in the mass start, we had an athlete meeting. Kikkan, as athlete rep for FIS, had to shoulder the responsibility of taking whatever the athletes agreed on to the FIS jury to lobby for the changes we’d requested. As a group, we decided on two potential course changes to make the race safer for everyone, and the third option was if FIS refused to take our safety seriously and make changes, then nobody would start. Everyone on board with taking a stand for our safety signed a paper – not everyone signed and the Russian coaches said their athletes would start no matter what – but the clear majority of the field (about 64 athletes) did.

And FIS proposed a slight change to Saturday’s mass start, but did nothing about the prologue course. So we had another athlete meeting. By then the media had started going crazy and we were all in the tabloids and on the evening news in Norway, Sweden, Germany, Finland, and Poland. Oh boy. Personally, I was really stressed out, because when faced with the chance that we might not race I found out how much I really DID want to start! But, I knew that if the group decision was to end the season and not start in favor of making a statement about athlete safety, there was no possible way I would start the race and still have a clear conscience! So I was ready to sit out the race. Below is a link to one of the articles with pictures of the boycott:

http://sport.adressa.no/sport/langrenn/article273502.ece

At the second meeting, the athletes decided that the slight changes FIS made were unacceptable…FIS has a history of never taking the athlete voice seriously and we needed to be listened to when it’s not just our job but health on the line! So again, the athletes demanded change or else would not start. In the morning, the FIS jury decided they’d modify the course more, and the athletes met 5 hours before the start time and said that we were satisfied, and we’d all race.

I was pretty pumped about resolving all that – it was kind of stressful and it would have been a major bummer to skip most of Finals! And the race went well – I did end up crashing on one of the corners during warmup, which I found ironic since safety was by default the theme of the day, and the bib sponsor said “rethink”. Hah! But in the race, I stayed on my feet and although I paced it on the conservative side (I wanted to ski out of the corners well and have legs for the final .5km), I was super happy with the result. I placed 8th, and Kik got 3rd, Holly 7th, Liz 20th, Ida 38th and Rosie 46th. Clearly, the coaches and techs gave us a boost to put 4 girls in the top-20!

Now that all the boycott talk is over, it’s going to seem pretty boring around here

It’s been really nice being here in Norway – after the Drammen sprint races we moved into the Rica Park hotel which is right next to the venue. It’s so convenient to be able to just walk to training whenever you want!

Kikkan and I took a couple pictures with Bjorn Daehlie clothing for next year, and we’re pretty pumped on the bright colors and jackets! It’s a little random in this post but I thought I’d give you a heads-up on how bright these jackets are going to be next year.

Photo credit Magnus Osth

Photo credit Magnus Osth

For me, the Drammen sprint race was a mix of both a super fun experience and a little confusion as to why I was moving so slowly out there! I felt like I did better than I usually do in classic sprints in terms of keeping my technique together and trying to use big, powerful strides, but I ended up far, far back in the field. I think I might be carrying some fatigue with me from Worlds, and hopefully I’ll be able to shake it for the final races of the season!

Newell's mug shot at the start

Sadie, Kikkan, Torin Koos and Andy qualified for the US, and Kikkan was the only one to make it out of the quarters (and all the way into the final!), although Andy was skiing really strong and it looked like he’d move on. That is, until a Swedish skier poled sideways, swiping Andy’s skis out from under him and causing a crash that looked really painful. That is the part of sprint racing I really DON’T like – you can be really fit and fast and still have crazy things happen to you! Total bummer.

Sadie (far right in the picture) in her quarterfinal with Dasha (Canada)

We’ve had fun meeting a couple different groups of Norwegian Junior skiers, since they’re here for a big relay race they had in the Holmenkollen stadium on Friday. We skied with them the day before their race, and did some race prep too!

photo from Matt

We got to enjoy the beautiful views and sunshine the last few days but today it’s been snowing hard, just in time for the men’s 50km! Argh! We’re parked in front of the TV right now cheering for the men’s race, and tomorrow is the women’s 30km skate. Things are pretty interesting right now as ski changes are allowed in the race; there are pits set up in the stadium and the men have the option of changing every lap. However, to change skis you have to ski a little longer and it’s been taking the guys 23-28 extra seconds, which means that if you change skis you’ll lose the pack you were with. Crazy!

After our last race in Lahti, Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (we call her Aikku) from the Finnish team had the girls over to her new house to hang out and relax. It was so awesome! She came to one of our training camps last summer and we got to know her really well, and was actually picking out final touches to her house while we were in camp. So it was super fun to see the designs she and her husband picked!

Having not been home since before Christmas, being in a cozy house with friends and being able to really relax and feel at home was the nicest thing ever. We all tried out Aikku’s wooden sauna, and I even made a snow-angel outside (it was REALLY cold that weekend so the snow angel was a speedy one!)

The US crew and Aikku! (photo from Holly)

Now that the season is almost over, there’s a sense of “spring skiing” in the air and everyone’s feeling more relaxed, I think. I get to fly back to Minnesota in exactly a month, and the homesickness hit me like a ton of bricks last weekend. So I taped all the cards I’ve been keeping from friends this season on my wall! It looked a little overwhelming but it sure helped a lot

My side of the room - taking pieces of home with me!

Yesterday we flew from Helsinki to Oslo, but we’re actually staying outside Oslo in Fornebu right now. It’s really nice to be in Norway, and I love where we’re staying because there’s a great running path along the water that lights up really nice at night. Or maybe I love all the seafood here. Or maybe it’s the way people sound like they’re singing when they talk. Whatever it is, I know it’ll be a fun week, because on the way up to our first training session at the venue we all rocked out to the Shania Twain CD the driver just happened to have! And of course, we got a clip of the van ride:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r57jUtfx1Yc&list=UUCRyeHKrnXVF1ssvEuaNs5Q&index=1

Getting ready for spring break soon! (photo from Kikkan)

Brrr! Lahti was a bit of a slap to the face after being in a t-shirt and warm sunshine last week. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t get nice and sunny by noon today for the skate sprint. It was a fast course out there, with lots of turns and two-way traffic on a bridge that made placing very tricky and strategic. I was on the wrong end of it today, and though I had a good qualifier I wasn’t able to move around people in my quarterfinal and ended 25th on the day. Andy was the only boys qualifier and also ended his day in the quarterfinal, as he had the same problem I did!

But what could have been a mediocre day was saved by our other two qualifiers and ended up as a fantastic cheer-fest because Kikkan won the sprint, on her 100th World Cup start, AND locked up the Overall Sprint title for the year! Which means she will get the Crystal Globe at the end of finals week! Just wait, it keeps going…Sadie got her first top-10 finish with a 9th place, and made it into the Semifinals for the first time ever. I am so proud of them, even more so because they both worked though injuries this summer and fall and kept a great attitude through it all.

I guess I could look at my personal result today as really disappointing since I’ve been in a lot of quarterfinals this year where I felt like if I had another chance I could have moved on, and it just hasn’t played out right yet, but I actually think it’s a really good thing in the long run. It’s always good to have something you’re really gunning for, really working towards, that’s within reach but will be a stretch. And if you get it too soon, then you have suddenly raised the bar so high that you can feel let down if you have a performance that would have previously been pretty sweet.

I think that’s what I’ve been feeling a bit this year – because last year I had a couple big breakthough races with a 6th in a sprint and 5th in a distance race. This year I’m racing like what I am – a 21 year old who still needs to learn sprint tactics, who needs a couple more years of training under her belt, but has crazy amounts of energy and enthusiasm. And in the team events, luckily, I’ve been able to pull togther good races! But in my individual performances, I catch myself not celebrating the little things, the small steps up the ladder that I wouldn’t have missed a year ago.

This is a bad thing, because I’m already that crazy type-A person who puts a ton of pressure on herself! So to have a year where I’m racing consistently just inside the top-30 has been really good for me, to make me take a step back and remember where I really am in the overall scheme of things, and appreciate the small victories. And of course, I can’t get bummed out when my teammates are having awesome days, because this is such a supportive team where everyone shares their success and energy. And if one person has a bad day they ride on the success of someone else’s, and then the next race they might be carrying someone else through a rough patch. But it all comes around!

Unfortunately, I don’t have any good pictures from Lahti, so those will have to wait. But tomorrow is a 10km classic individual start, on some of the most challenging hills. There will definitely be a lot of herringbone going on out there! And then there’s the famous “Lahti curve”, a tight 180 corner coming down the hill into the stadium area. Maybe that’s why there are so many spectators? Hmmm. On classic skis, it might get a little crazy, but I think it’s going to be a really fun day out there.

Well, that’s it! World Championships are over, with the 30km classic and yesterday’s men’s 50km. I went up to the far end of the course to cheer in the sun with Liz and Ida, and we had a really good time getting our cheer on. Watching Johan Olsson of Sweden ski over half the race out in front by himself and then take the win was really incredible, and I don’t have much of a voice left after all the yelling we were doing at our boys out there! Hoff finished 27th, Bird got 37th, Tad got 40th, and Erik finished 52nd.

Olsson and Cologna making a move early on...and us cheering at our "station"!

We had about 10 bottles of ice water in the snowbank in case anyone looked like they were in danger of heat stroke. It was a sunny hot day!

Matt and Flora, the spare pole man

The scene at the wax bench after the race

Saturday was a bit of a rough day for me. First of all, though, I want to say congrats to Liz for a super awesome 16th place, and Ida got a 25th in the 30km mass start classic. I started the race having talked with my coaches and, knowing that Lahti is only a week away and wanting to be able to ski well there, had the plan to drop the race if anything went wrong. It just wasn’t going to be worth it to push so deep that I would regret it later. In my head, that plan sounded great – it was smart, it would be a fun, sunny day no matter what.

But on the first lap, there were a lot of crashes, especially right after the steepest fastest downhill on the course. I was one of them – I fell hard onto my side and couldn’t stop sliding till I slammed into an Italian girl. My ribs scraped over her skis (and, I found out today, broke one of her skis. I felt super bad about that). After that I was mostly skiing by myself, and after a lap when the adrenaline had worn off a bit and my side was starting to really hurt, I started thinking too much. My head jumped right out of the race and started thinking about injuries, and I decided to drop.

Even though all the coaches said it was the smartest decision, it felt so bad in the few hours after to not finish a race for the second time in my life. I guess it felt bad because I’m used to doing the “tough” thing, not the smart thing. But the next day, after I let it sink in, it was nice to feel rested and be able to train well, and I wasn’t bummed out anymore. It won’t be the last time I need to drop a race in my life, so it’s important to be able to roll with the punches early on and not get caught up on the little things!

Here’s a bunch of pictures from our two weeks here at World Champs – I didn’t have time to upload them earlier but thought they were definitely worth posting.

The Nordic Combined boys getting their makeup on for awards

Sophie ready to go training! She meets up with us again in Lahti

Sometimes the parking space was too tight to open the back door without taking a fall!

Glitter and facepaint party before the relay

Getting a hug from Liz at her awards night for the 10km skate

Next, we move to Lahti for a skate sprint and 10km classic. But first – a few chill days to relax and let the Championship week sink in!

Right now I’m sitting on Ida’s bed, and we’re busy watching the dude’s 4x10km relay race. I’m so excited for them – they’re right in the lead pack and Andy just tagged off to Bird man in a great spot. They’re skiing their hearts out, all while wearing the USA flag on their faces (they finally consented to let me paint their faces!!!). Noah will ski the third leg and Tad will finish the relay.

Andy put out and impressive first leg! (photo stolen from Caldwell Sport)

Yesterday we had the women’s 4x5km relay, and our order was: Sadie, Kikkan, Liz then me. I was so excited and nervous, with the pressure of being the anchor leg. On the one hand I wasn’t stressing because I knew without a doubt that everyone on the team, including me, would give their 100% effort and you can’t give more than that. All the work has been done – all the training logged, the resting over, and worrying about it doesn’t change anything. But I was still so nervous because when you’re the one to cross the finish line, the hopes of the whole team are riding on you once you exit the tag zone. Talk about pressure! Gahh.

Sadie did such a great job opening for us, and kept us in the fight. Even though she had a little tangle with the fence, she still skied super well and I’m really proud of her for handling the nerves of her first World Champs relay like a pro! Kikkan didn’t have her best day today, but still skied strong and was able to tag Liz into 9th, in a good group of skiers.

Then Liz skied the fastest third leg by a ton, and just scampered her way up all the hills, passing girls left and right, and tagged me into 4th place! She did just an amazing job, and we’re so proud of her for being able to push so hard the whole way. She is on fire right now!

Sadie and Liz high-fiving after the finish (Fasterskier photo)

So in the tag zone I started 25 seconds behind third-place (Finland) and 8 seconds up on Russia. And I couldn’t have pushed any harder, but it was so hard to see the Russian girl ski by and not be able to hang with her, as she caught the Finns and pulled her team into the bronze medal place. I did end up catching the Finnish girl, and as she was dying hard (I know what that feels like, I’ve totally been there) I was able to put 18 seconds into her on the last hill.

Initially in the finish pen I was so disappointed in myself for not being able to hang with the Russian girl, but I did the best I could that day and when I stepped back I realized that getting passed by one of the top-3 skaters in the world isn’t really shameful at all. But it does make me even more motivated for next year’s relay (if that’s even possible!) and every year I gain a couple hundred more hours of training and more experience. Hopefully next time round I can hang!

What got me most excited about the day was that although not everything went perfect and some of the race legs felt just solid instead of outstanding, we still got our best ever World Champs relay finish and jumped up from 9th in 2011 to 4th!

The girls team with Matt (Joey Caterinichio photo)

And I want to make sure and note that the wax techs did a great job, and it was so cool to hear our teammates and coaches out on course yelling for us. It made such a difference! Ida and Holly were out on course screaming, and Holly was dressed up in a crazy pink suspenders-and-tuttu-outfit with a flag, yelling like I’ve never heard her before.

Team spirit leader! (photo stolen from Caldwell Sport)

Alright, the men’s relay just finished! Hoff skied a solid leg and Tad was able to catch onto the leader’s pack for a while! Then Finland caught up with a strong last lap, as well as Japan and France, and the US team finished 10th. However, it was the most exciting relay in a long time and they stayed right in the fight!

Tomorrow is the Ladies 30km classic mass start, and Sunday is the Men’s 50km classic mass start. Wish us luck!

As promised, here is the update with all the details from last weekend’s team sprint race at World Champs that Kikkan and I won! It was a historic win and the first Gold medal US Cross Country skiing has ever won. And it took such a big team of people (coaches, wax techs, teammates, family, friends) to get us here…thanks so much to everyone! Warning: this is a long blog post, so hats off to you if you finish reading it all But that’s because there are details I haven’t told any of the press.

The team with the flag after the race (Steph Caverhill photo)

This story really starts two years ago, back in Oslo World Championships. I saw Kikkan come into the individual sprint as one of the favorites and then after a super unfortunate tangle in the quarterfinals, not make it through the rounds, which was heartbreaking but inspiring in the way she handled the media. I watched the team sprint, saw Sadie and Kikkan give a great fight and then watched in amazement as the Canadian men’s team of Devon and Alex won the gold medal. And right then and there, I made it my goal for the next two years that I would train my ass off, work as hard as I could, to get a chance to be Kikkan’s sprint partner. I’ve seen her training and working so hard for so long, and wanted to help give her the best tag-off possible. I started imagining how awesome it would be if we could get on the podium in the team sprint.

Thomas Zipfel cartoon of us after the race

Last year, in Milan, I got to be Kikkan’s sprint partner for the first time (and do my first team sprint ever), and we got a silver medal! It was all thanks to Kikkan skiing so strong and smooth, and catching up after my two falls. But still, I started hoping even more and thinking that maybe my goal was going to become reality. But it was still a long, long ways out! Then this winter in Quebec, Kikkan and I won the first World Cup team sprint medal ever for the USA. I started thinking that I wasn’t crazy after all for continuously imagining the US winning a relay medal, and I started to really truly believe. A little over a month ago, I saw the sprint course for the first time, and my visualizations of every possible race scenario were complete. I guess you could call me crazy, but I think I’ve played this race in my mind around 100 times.

The day before the race I couldn’t stop playing the race in my head – I kept looking for things totally not related to skiing to distract myself! I was so nervous, it felt like there was a hole in my stomach. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, and the uncertainty of not having raced at World Champs yet was killing me – not knowing if the tapering and training plan had worked, not knowing if I had rested enough or too much. You need to have confidence in yourself and your plan, and I did, but it was still really hard to have such high hopes and not know if I was in good shape or not.

Cork and Flora with the podium flowers (photo by Caldwell Sport)

Race morning we did our usual routine…both Kikkan and I stuck to what we’d been doing all year, not changing anything. We got to the venue and practiced a few tags in the zone, and I tested skis with my tech, Jason Cork, who picked the pair for me when I got too nervous to be able to feel my feet anymore. About our staff – they work so hard every single weekend, and they get up before anyone else so they can spend hours dialing in the wax. And on Sunday, they absolutely nailed it, and we had the fastest skis in the world! I actually had to stand up a few times so I wouldn’t pass people before I wanted to. They deserve so much more recognition than they get, and I’m so proud to get to work with them all year long!

Gibbs and Wubbles in the wax room (USSA Nordic photo)

Matt, Flora and Grover (USSA nordic photo)

Ok, back to the race. For the semifinal, Kikkan and I wanted to ski tactically smart and save as much energy for the final as possible. So I tucked into 2-4th place whenever I could, and stayed out of trouble, often accelerating a little into the tag zone so I could get a clear line to my teammate. We moved on through to the finals without a hitch, but what I was most excited about were my skis – they were SO fast, and I kept telling the techs what an incredible job they’d done. Also a huge thanks to Salomon, because I’d just gotten the race pair 24 hours before the final, and they ended up being the fastest skis for the day. Perfect timing!

In-between the semifinal and the final round, we had just enough time to cool down, chill out (as much as I could chill out when my heart was pounding so hard I could feel it in my fingertips) and then warm back up again. Steph Caverhill, an amazing massage therapist who volunteers her time with us on the road, gave us a rub down, which helped a ton!

Steph giving Kikkan a rub down (Steph Caverhill photo)

Then it was time for the final! The nice thing for me about racing is that no matter how nervous I am beforehand, once the race starts and it’s time to focus in on what I need to do, that’s pretty much all I can think about. I was so concentrated on skiing smart, staying out of trouble, and being ready to cover any attacks made by the other skiers that I didn’t have time to feel nervous!

The first leg was a much more relaxed pace, and I started out in front to stay out of trouble but then settled into third or fourth. Again, I was thrilled to notice that my skis were running super fast, which was especially good since the course ended on a downhill and flats.  Kikkan and I had smooth exchanges – we’d tag off and immediately pop our skis off and hand them to the techs in the pits, who’d brush them out and keep them running fast.

Peter, our head wax guy (USSA Nordic photo)

On my last leg (the 5th lap total of 6), I knew I had some extra energy kicking around, and I wanted so badly to tag Kikkan off into a great position. I knew that with the way she’d been skiing and how strong of a sprinter she is, I really just had to tag her into the first pack of skiers and she’d be able to pull it off, but crazy things happen in sprint races and I wanted to try to get her a lead if I could. So on the big hill, I made a move, and started to string out the field. But near the top, before we went under the bridge and around the corner, the Finnish girl behind me stepped on my pole and it came straight off my hand!

One-pole skiing (photo from Noah Hoffman)

A couple thoughts flashed through my mind – first, a little irritation because I was trying so hard to get a lead and skiing with one pole isn’t usually the way to get a lead, then secondly I thought “well, the course is mostly flat and downhills from here…I can totally finish this thing up with one pole”. Truthfully, I wasn’t thinking much beyond “go, go go!” And I guess because I skate a lot with my legs anyways, I was able to keep the pace up till I got under the bridge, where the coaches were standing at the top of the hill.

And that’s when Erik Flora did his amazing 50m dash down the hill with one of the spare poles – he got it to me so fast, it was incredible! I was able to tuck behind the Finn and slide my hand into the biathalon strap, and re-boot mentally for the second half of the course. A quick note – the Finnish girl didn’t mean to take my pole off, and she came up after the race and apologized. But I wasn’t mad at her – that kind of thing happens in sprint racing! And it all worked out ok anyways.

We came flying down the steep downhill of the course, and I was able to slingshot into the lead and somehow hold it until I tagged off to Kikkan. Then she flew around the sprint course and crossed the line with over a 7 second lead! She skied an incredible race – the whole team’s efforts made that race possible – and as I ran over to the finish pen I could barely breathe I was so excited. I hugged Kikkan and then realized that my parents and friends and family were watching that race on TV, and I started crying as it hit me that we really won.

At the finish line (USSA Nordic photo)

When it started to sink in (USSA Nordic photo)

The rest of the day was a total whirlwind – press conferences, about a million pictures and interviews, and then the awards ceremony that night. What made the ceremony even better was that the Nordic Combined relay team won bronze!

From left to right: Bill Demong, Taylor and Bryan Fletcher, Me, Kikkan, and Todd Lodwick (USSA Nordic photo)

So we got to have a medal in each Nordic dicipline. A funny note about the awards ceremonies – backstage, they have everyone arrive super early so they can have you pose for sponsor pictures and have a makeup artist get after your face. I guess because the lights on the stage are so bright, or maybe they just want to see what Cross Country skiers look like with makeup on, they had these ladies really do a good job hiding each and every freckle on my nose! Hah.

Our hotel staff made us a cake! (Hoffman photo)

The press conference (Whitcomb photo)

The last few days have still felt pretty crazy busy, but now everything’s shifting back to normal. Which is so important for me to say, because Pete Vordenburg once said “you have to enjoy the process, because man, that’s all there is”, and that couldn’t be more true. Winning a race feels really awesome, but the podium ceremony lasts a couple minutes, and to get up there, you have to train for years and YEARS. And if you aren’t loving what you’re doing, enjoying each and every day of training with a team that you like and respect, then it’s not going to be worth it. Because having a gold medal doesn’t change you. It doesn’t make you happier or smarter or more successful. It means you have a shiny piece of metal that will end up in a drawer somewhere! What stays with you are the memories, the friendships, the great moments over the years with your team. So, to all the young skiers out there – find a team you like, with people you like, and make your goal not to win a medal but to enjoy every day and every step of the way there!

Nordic Focus photo

As I wrap this post up (finally! I can’t believe you’re still reading this!) I just want to say thanks to my family, friends and sponsors for always being there for me and the team, whether or not the results roll in. That’s the most important part of all this – knowing the people that care about you will always be there. So thanks guys!