The U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships are back in Anchorage, and an all-star cast of Alaskans are ready to set the stage, and perhaps seize the stage, at Kincaid Park.

More than 350 skiers — including about a hundred Alaskans — will vie for national championships and spots on international teams beginning Thursday. National titles will be up for grabs on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, and many of the top racers will stick around for a Super Tour race on Tuesday.

Expect Alaskans to be among those who will stand on the medals podium. At least five of them have earned medals previously — Kendall Kramer of Fairbanks, and Luke Jager, Hunter Wonders, Michael Earnhart and Scott Patterson, all of Anchorage.

Wonders and Earnhart spent the first part of the season racing on the World Cup circuit, and Jager and Patterson are both Olympians — Jager in 2022 and Patterson in 2018 and 2022. Patterson, 32, retired from World Cup racing in 2023 but remains a factor in distance races.

From the Lower 48 come a handful of past national champs — John Steel Hagenbuch of Idaho, Will Koch of Vermont and Sydney Palmer-Leger of Utah.

Also expected to compete is Sammy Smith of Idaho, a 19-year-old multi-sport star who won a silver medal in the freestyle sprint at last year’s World Junior Championships and was a member of the Stanford women’s soccer team that made it to the national semifinals of the NCAA Tournament last month.

Another teen to watch: Anchorage’s Murphy Kimball, who made his World Cup debut last season at age 18.

Those are some of the stars who will take centerstage. And check out the talent behind the scenes:

• Olympic gold medalist Kikkan Randall, the executive director of the Nordic Ski Association of Anchorage, the co-host of the championships along with Anchorage Parks & Recreation. Randall’s brilliant racing career culminated with victory at the 2018 Winter Olympics, where along with Jessie Diggins she became the nation’s first Olympic champion in cross-country skiing.
• Four-time Olympic skier Nina Kemppel, who helped blaze the trail for Randall and the other women who came later and elevated the U.S. Ski Team to international prominence. Kemppel, the dominant American for a decade and an Olympian in 1992, 1994, 1998 and 2002, will provide commentary on livestream coverage of the races.
• In the Kincaid Park stadium, 1994 Olympian Adam Verrier will serve as announcer. Over at the wax bunker near the chalet, 1972 Olympian Larry Martin will be in charge.
• More than 200 volunteers and NSAA staff members, whose have an outstanding track record for putting on successful championship events. Co-chairs are Matt Pauli, the chief of competition who has been an organizational backbone for decades, and Ida Gullett, the race director for NSAA who will be in charge of logistics. She’s the daughter of Larry Martin and a former standout for the Homer High ski team.

John Estle, Lin Hinderman and Joey Caterinichio all bring national and international experience as coaches, technical delegates and administrators. The volunteer army known as the Green Grunts — tireless, beloved and integral to nearly every race held in Anchorage — provide support and expertise at the start line, the finish line and all of the kilometers in-between.

Randall, who just turned 42, is not that far removed from ski racing — she raced in her fifth and last Olympics seven years ago. She took over as NSAA’s executive director in 2021, and the national championships are her biggest undertaking in her new role.

“For me, coming in I knew I was going to be a fish out of water,” Randall said. “It’s one thing to be a racer and show up and things are done already. It’s another thing when you have to think about everything.”

Having so many volunteers with so much historical knowledge and hands-on experience helps.

The championships, last held at Kincaid Park in 2018, will make the most of what remains from generous October snowfalls that totaled nearly 22 inches. December has contributed a scant 2 inches.

A planned 10-kilometer loop that included part of the wind-exposed Lekisch Trail has been scrapped in favor of a 5-kilometer loop, Randall said. Volunteers spent hours last weekend shoveling snow trucked in from other parts of the park to fortify the 5K trail.

“The sprint course is bomb-proof,” she said.

Absent from the field are America’s top skiers – including Alaska’s Rosie Brennan, Gus Schumacher, Zanden McMullen and JC Schoonmaker – who are competing in World Cup races in Europe.

But there will be plenty of talent at Kincaid.

Some will be hoping to earn World Cup stars with their performances. Some will be gunning for Team USA spots for this season’s World Junior Championships and U23 World Championships; those teams will be named Sunday night after the final national championship race.

Randall won 17 national championships during her career (one fewer than Kemppel’s record 18), with her first coming at age 19 in Bozeman, Montana.

“I remember when just the thought of nationals used to send chills down my back,” Randall said. “It’s such an epic competition.”

U.S. Cross Country Ski Championships
At Kincaid Park
Thursday — 10-kilometer freestyle, interval start
11 a.m. — Men’s start
12:30 p.m. — Women’s start
Saturday — 1.4-kilometer classic sprint
10 a.m. — Qualifications
12:30-4 p.m. — Quarterfinals, semifinals, finals
Sunday — 20-kilometer classic, mass start (10K for U20s)
11 a.m. — Men’s start
12:30 p.m. — Women’s start
2 p.m. — U20 men’s start
2:30 p.m. — U20 women’s start
Tuesday — 1.4-kilometer freestyle sprint
This is a Super Tour race, not a U.S. championship race)
10 a.m. — Qualifications
12:30-4 p.m. — Quarterfinals, semifinals, finals

That’s especially true for younger skiers still amassing experience. A number of Alaska’s high school racers will compete this week — one of the benefits of hosting the races, Randall said.

“For a 16- or 17-year-old to be able to rub shoulders with some of the nation’s top skiers and see what that level looks like — that’s a big thing, and part of why the NSAA likes hosting these races,” she said. “We want to give our racers the best chances we can.”

Five of Randall’s national titles came at Kincaid, with four of them coming in 2010 when she swept the gold medals.

She said Alaska skiers get an edge when they race at home, but they also face extra pressure.

They’re sleeping in their own beds, following their regular routines and racing on trails they know, which is all good.

“But now their friends and family are watching,” Randall said, “and they’re supposed to do well because they’re on their home trails.”