Rosie Brennan
UPDATE: The U.S. women’s relay team was announced late Thursday night: 1) Hailey Swirbul (classic); 2) Rosie Brennan (classic); 3) Novie McCabe (freestyle); 4) Jessie Diggins, freestyle
The U.S. women have a real shot at their first Olympic cross country relay medal on Friday night.
But their coaches have a dilemma: which four skiers should they select?
Two of the picks are no-brainers: Rosie Brennan in classic technique and Jessie Diggins in freestyle. Brennan, who lives in Anchorage and trains with Alaska Pacific University, has been racking up podiums the last two seasons and just placed fourth at the Olympic sprint. Diggins is a legend and the only American Nordic skier with two Olympic medals.
The remaining two selections — one in classic and one in freestyle — to ski five kilometers seem up for grabs, with five racers potentially in consideration.
Chris Grover
For the classic leg, do the coaches — which include former Alaskans Chris Grover (Anchorage) and Jason Cork (North Pole) — go with Haley Swirbul, also of APU, whose form so far at these Olympics is not quite up to par? (She’s placed 40th in the 15K skiathlon and 32nd in the 10K classic).
Or do they select 20-year-old Novie McCabe of Washington, who placed 24th on Wednesday in the 10K classic?
Or perhaps Julia Kern, an East Coast sprinter with chops?
The remaining freestyle leg also presents a dilemma with Olympic rookie Sophia Laukli an option, although she hasn’t yet raced at these games (Laukli, incidentally, is the niece of East Anchorage High School coach Gary Snyder). Caitlin Patterson, a graduate of South Anchorage High School, is also a strong skater with Olympic experience.
Caitlin Patterson
Devon Kershaw, a retired Canadian racer, said on his podcast that he’d select McCabe, Brennan, Laukli and Diggins, in that order.
“But that’s a huge, huge risk to put Laukli in there having never raced the Olympics before,” Kershaw said. “You see how much uncertainty there is. That’s tough for a team.”
With powerhouses Norway and Sweden lacking their usual depth, Kershaw predicted before the Olympics that the U.S. would win relay gold (his guest that day, Canadian legend Alex Harvey, left the U.S. off his podium entirely).
Kikkan Randall
The U.S. came reasonably close to medaling at the 2018 Olympics by placing a best-ever fifth, 37 seconds off the podium. That team included Anchorage’s Sadie Bjornsen and Kikkan Randall. Unfortunately, their lead-off skier that day finished her leg in 11th place more than a minute off the pace and the rest of the team was forced to play catch-up.
The team’s closest near-miss at a championship came at the 2021 World Championships in Germany, where the quartet of Swirbul, Bjornsen, Brennan and Diggins took fourth a heart-breaking 0.8 seconds behind the bronze-medal winning Finns.
That result marked the fifth time the U.S. placed in the top five at the World Championships without a medal (although the team has won bronze at World Cup relays before).
At the only relay contested this season, the team of Swirbul, Brennan, Diggins and Kern placed fourth in Lillehammer, Norway.
Scott Patterson
Swirbul, a Colorado native, is putting her trust in the coaches that they’ll name their top team.
“Everyone on our team is confident that we’re going to try to put in the team with the best shot of a relay medal,” Swirbul told Fasterskier.com after the 10K classic. “So there are no hard feelings. There’s nothing personal about that team selection. We all trust that we’re just trying to do the best for our nation.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. men’s team is not expected to contend in the 4X10K relay on Saturday night. The U.S. finished last in 2018 and 11th of 16 teams in 2014.
Gus Schumacher
The squad’s only two distance skiers, Anchorage’s Scott Patterson and Gus Schumacher, are virtually certain to be on the roster.
Who fills the remaining two spots are anyone’s guess among Anchorage’s Luke Jager, the University of Alaska Anchorage’s JC Schoonmaker, Vermont’s Ben Ogden and Utah’s Kevin Bolger. All are primarily sprinters, although Schoonmaker showed some distance prowess by placing third at the U.S. Nationals 15K classic in early January.