Anchorage’s Gus Schumacher made American history Sunday. Photo courtesy U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team
Gus Schumacher finished his 10-kilometer interval-start race ahead of the 34 men who’d started before him.
“I thought ‘Sweet, I gotta get in the leader’s chair,” said Schumacher, adding that in his career he’d probably only occupied that seat for a grand total of 30 seconds.
But all the big stars of Nordic skiing were yet to come in Sunday’s World Cup race at Minneapolis’ Wirth Park, where racers left every 30 seconds in a time-trial format.
The leader’s seat got warmer as World Cup leader Harald Amundsen couldn’t best Schumacher’s time. It got even hotter when Norwegian Johannes Klaebo, considered the greatest skier in men’s Nordic skiing history, came up 6.5 seconds behind. Olympic gold medalist Simen Krueger was the next big name to trail Schumacher.
“To see that time keep holding up I was like, ‘Oh my god I really did ski a crazy race,’” Schumacher said.
The seat finally practically burned up, and the stadium crowd pitch reached pandemonium, when last year’s World Cup distance champion, Pal Golberg, crossed 5.8 seconds behind.
To most everyone’s surprise and amazement, Schumacher had made history as the first American men’s distance World Cup champion since Bill Koch in 1983.
Just a kid from Alaska writing the history of American cross-country skiing 🖌️! Gus Schumacher 🇺🇸 left the crowd of Minneapolis breathless in today’s 10Km. 👑#fiscrosscountry #worldcup #history #wintersports #emotions #minneapolis pic.twitter.com/2r349V5HTe
— FIS Cross-Country (@FISCrossCountry) February 18, 2024
“I’m just so grateful to be able to have a good race and show that our team as a whole just put another mark on the board,” Schumacher said in one of a flurry of interviews that included NBC Sports, which televised the race live. “I was 45th four weeks ago. I just kept believing in myself.”
Believe it. At age 23, the Anchorage native joined Kikkan Randall as the only Nordic World Cup champion from Alaska. The win came in his 71st World Cup start and after several disappointing seasons, including a rough 2022 Winter Olympics. His previous top results included three Top 10s, with the best being fourth place in a sprint last month during the Tour de Ski in Switzerland.
While first Randall, who announced Sunday’s race for NBC, and then Jessie Diggins of Minnesota have regularly won World Cups, such success for the men’s team has been elusive, though momentum has been building with a young corps of skiers like Ben Ogden of Vermont and JC Schoonmaker of the Alaska Pacific University Nordic Ski Center.
However, the last men’s victory came in a sprint by Simi Hamilton on New Year’s Eve in 2013.
Schumacher has tasted a massive win before, taking individual gold at the 2020 World Junior Championships 10K classic in Germany.
But Sunday’s win was extra special, with so many teammates and staff in attendance — they mobbed him at the podium after the official ceremony there — and a hometown crowd that was off-the-charts loud in support and included dozens of Alaskans.
“I felt pretty unstoppable out there and the USA chants in the last couple hills were really crazy,” Schumacher said. “That was a lot of energy for me. … It means a lot to have the best race of my life with so many true skiing fans here.”
Schumacher didn’t waste any time in starting the celebration, joining several teammates with beers in hands to cheer on teammates in the ensuing women’s race.
Never getting over this 😭 pic.twitter.com/0zMf1kstjs
— U.S. Ski & Snowboard Team (@usskiteam) February 18, 2024
Schumacher’s progression started with the Alaska Winter Stars under coach Jan Buron, also his coach at Service High School. It has continued as a member of the US Ski Team and with APUNSC, which he joined this season under coach Erik Flora (who was also in attendance Sunday).
Schumacher felt he was popping a strong race but as an early starter had no idea how strong.
“I couldn’t hear my breathing (due to crowd noise) so I didn’t really know how hard I was going,” he said. “I knew I was doing well and had to push it in the end. I’m just so grateful to be healthy right now and skiing well.”
At this year’s seven-race Tour de Ski, Schumacher was producing a string of strong results and sat in fourth place overall after four stages. Then he suddenly got sick and had to drop from the Tour. He went to Spain with Ogden to recover and regroup before rejoining the Tour 16 days later. In his first race back, he placed 44th in a 20K classic in Germany.
Those struggles were something to learn from, but now ancient history.
Now he’s a World Cup champion, and teammate Schoonmaker couldn’t be happier for him.
“No one one works harder than Gus,” Schoonmaker said. “He dedicates so much of his life to skiing and he’s a great teammate, a great leader and a great skier. I’m super happy for him.”
Plenty of other Alaskans competed. View men’s results HERE and women’s results HERE.