This article originally appeared in Ski Trax Magazine
By Garrott Kuzzy

For two weeks at the end of February, the Nordic world focused its attention to the 2019 World Championships in the idyllic alpine village of Seefeld, Austria. This legacy venue has a long history of championship skiing; hosting the 1964 and 1976 Olympic Games, as well as the 1985 Nordic World Championships -- remembered as the last championship before classic and skating were officially designated by the International Ski Federation (FIS) as separate disciplines. The decision made was made by FIS officials in the iconic Seekirchl Church, located at the trailhead of Seefeld’s 200+ km trail network -- of both classic and skate tracks.

That same church was the backdrop for the opening ceremonies and medals plaza for the 2019 championships. Most of the athletes, teams and spectators stayed in the pedestrian friendly village, creating a two-week apres atmosphere that rivals even the Alpine World Cup circuit. Let the festivities begin!

Skate Sprint

The championships kicked off with the skate sprint. Qualifiers and heats for both women and men make for an exciting start to the racing. Hopes were high for the US and Canada. Sophie Caldwell had won this event at the World Cup in Seefeld a year earlier. Jessie Diggins was coming off a win at the Cogne World Cup a week earlier. Astute followers will have noticed, however, that some of the other favorites like Sweden’s Stina Nilsson and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla were absent from the tune-up events.

The US had particularly strong showings in the qualifiers, with all four women and three men moving on to the heats. In the end, two men and two women were knocked out in the quarter-finals. Diggins and Caldwell advanced to the semi-finals, but neither moved on from their very close semi-final heats. In the end, pre-race favorites Falla and Nilsson finished a close first (2:32.35) and second (+1.66), followed by Norwegian Mari Eide in third (+2.84).

Simi Hamilton missed out on the A-Final by a photo-finish. That same semi-final, Sergey Ustiugov was disqualified for unsportsmanlike behavior after getting tangled with Johannes Klaebo several times during the heat.

The men’s final was reminiscent of the famous Thomas Alsgaard and Christian Zorzi moment in the 2002 Olympic Relay, where both almost stopped at the top of the final climb, not wanting to lead the last descent. In this race, however, all six racers practically stopped before surging downhill. Italy’s Frederico Pellegrino looked as if he would make it to the line first, but Norway’s Klaebo surged in the final stretch to win (3:21.17), followed by Pellegrino (+0.23) and Russia’s Gleb Retivykh (+1.37).

Skiathlon

Athletes had a rest day after the sprints, while service teams vigorously prepared for Saturday’s skiathlon. Fog burned off as the women took off on a particularly challenging course, where the south facing trails were a contrast of hard ice in the shady sections and soft snow in the sun. 

A trio of Norwegians, Therese Johaug, Ingvild Oestberg and Astrid Jacobsen, strung out the field in the classic leg. Only Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva was able to hold on. By the exchange, Johaug had pulled away by 24 seconds, leaving Oestberg, Jacobsen and Nepryaeva to race for silver. Johaug extended her lead in the skate leg winning the 15km Skiathlon in 36:54.5. The chase pack stayed together until the finishing stretch, with Oestberg finishing in second (+57.6) and Nepryaeva in third (+58.7).

There were several other notable results. Sweden’s Frida Karlsson, at 19 years old, finished fifth. Karlsson’s World Cup debut was a week earlier in Cogne, Italy where she finished seventh in the 10km classic. Rosie Brennan from the US was in 15th place after the classic leg, then skated her way up to 10th place (+2:01), the top North American result of the day. Julia Kern from the US finished 19th (+2:55) and was the fourth U23 skier. Jessica Yeaton, who competes for Australia, but grew up in Alaska and trains with the Alaska Pacific University (APU) team, finished 22nd (+2:58). US skier and Yeaton’s APU teammate Rosie Frankowski finished 24th (+3:00) after skiing much of the race together.

By the time the men started, the course was significantly softer and the crowd primed for more  racing under the hot sunshine. A six skier breakaway split the field in the classic leg and included Great Britain's Andrew Musgrave. Canada’s Alex Harvey led the chase group, about 20 seconds behind the leaders, but it seemed apparent that they would not catch up.

A group of five continued to drive at the front, with Norway’s Martin Sundby, Sjur Roethe and Russia’s Bolshunov breaking away on the final climb. Roethe played a patient hand, sitting in third until the final sprint, surging to take the victory (1:10:21.8) ahead of Bolshunov (+0.1) and Sundby (+0.7). Harvey made up ground in his skate leg, catching and passing Musgrave. The two finished sixth (+58.9) and seventh (+1:00.3) respectively.

Team Sprint

As defending Olympic champions, the US women had high hopes going into the Team Sprint, but several variables had changed. This event was on classic skis and Kikkan Randall had retired. Still, the Sadie Bjornsen and Diggins team had earned bronze in the 2017 Lahti classic team sprint.

The Swedish defending Olympic Classic Sprint champion Nilsson paired with Maja Dahlqvist and traded leads with Norway’s Oestberg and Falla. Other teams shuffled places close behind in third. Coming into the final stretch, Nilsson pulled away for the Swedish victory (15:14.93), while Slovenia’s Anamaria Lampic slid her way ahead of Falla earning a silver medal for Slovenia (+0.37) along with veteran World Cup skier and mother, Katja Visnar. Norway finished third (+0.60). Diggins and Bjornsen finished a close fifth place (+2.79). The Canadian duo of Emily Nishikawa and Dahria Beatty narrowly missed the A-Final and finished 12th overall.

For the men, a six team pack exchanged leads for the majority of the race with no clear leader. At the final exchange, the leaders started slow, no one wanting to take the lead, before Bolshunov drove to the front, towing the six-skier train. In a deja-vu moment, all six skiers slowed to walking pace again before the final descent. Again, Bolshunov took the initiative to drive, before Klaebo glided past on the descent and carried his momentum into his signature running technique to open a gap going into the finish. Norway finished a convincing first (18:49.86) followed by Russia’s Bolshunov (paired with Rtivykh +1.88) and Italy’s Pellegrino (paired with Francesco De Fabiani +4.03) in third. The US team, Hamilton and Erik Bjornsen, finished eighth (+28.56). Canada’s Evan Palmer-Charrette and Len Valjas finished tenth (+1:40.99).

10 / 15 km Classic

The second week of the championships kicked off with the women’s 10km classic. Rather than hold both the women’s and men’s events on the same day, as had been the case in the first week, all of the women’s and men’s races were on separate days during the second week, no doubt taking some pressure off the service teams.

The women’s individual start 10km Classic featured two challenging 5km loops. The fastest skiers were seeded last, adding excitement to see who’s times might hold on for the podium. Sweden’s 19 year-old Karlsson, started with bib 28 and finished with a fast early time in the field of 60 seeded skiers. The next 31 skiers tried to best Karlsson’s time, but no one came close...until Norway’s Johaug, the top seeded skier of the day, in bib 60, crossed the line with the fastest time (27:02.1), ahead of Karlsson (+12.1) and Norway’s Oestberg (+35.6). All four US skiers finished in the top 30: Bjornsen (23rd, +1:41), Brennan (24th, +1:45), Diggins (25th, +1:51) and Caldwell (29th, +2:09)

The men’s 15km classic the next day was perhaps the sunniest, slushiest day of the championships. Norway’s Martin Johnsrud Sundby had won 30 World Cup races, but never a World Championship. Today was his day. Despite a late start on a hot day, Sundby had the fastest time of the day to win the race (38:22.6), ahead of Russia’s Alexander Bessmertnych (+2.9) and defending champion Iivo Niskanen (20.4) of Finland. Erik Bjornsen finished 17th (+1:50).  Scott Patterson and Kyle Bratrud, also from the US, finished 30th (+2:34) and 31st (+2:43) respectively. Canada’s Scott Hill was 34th (+3:01).

Relays

All of the events at the World Championships are a big deal, but the relays perhaps take the crown as the most sought after events. Given the results earlier in the week, Norway and Sweden were once again the favorites in the women’s 4 x 5km. The US had an outside chance. Canada, seeded 12th, was a long shot.

Norway and Sweden pulled away in the first two legs. Sweden’s U23 skiers Ebba Andersson and Karlsson, hung with Norway’s Heidi Weng and Oestberg. The third leg featured veterans Charlotte Kalla (Sweden) and Astrid Jacobsen (Norway) who have both been scoring World Cup points since 2006. Kalla had one of the most impressive performances of the championships, opening a 20 second gap for Sweden going into the final leg. It was a formidable gap for Johaug to close on the final leg, but she caught sprint specialist Nilsson going up the final climb. The Norwegian fans filling the stadium erupted for their hero as Johaug came into the finishing stretch, but Nilsson’s sprint skills powered Sweden to victory in the relay (55:21). Russia finished third (+2:03). Despite skiing solo for most of her leg, Diggins kept pushing to the line for the US, finishing fifth (+3:06), matching their seed for the relay. Canada finished 12th (+5:02), also matching their seed.

Dark clouds filled the skies and opened up to rain on Friday for the men’s relay. It was the first event that, until this point, was not sunny. That did not slow down the racers, or the spectators, who still filled the stands. Norway and Russia pulled away from Finland on the third leg, setting up a duel between Klaebo and Ustiugov on the final leg. Their tense interaction after the sprint a week earlier added to the suspense. In the end, Klaebo did not leave anything to chance, opening an early gap and winning for Norway (1:43:32) ahead of Russia (+0:38). The excitement was not over, though, as France’s Richard Jouve and Finland’s Perttu Hyvarinen played a 10km game of strategy before Jouve pulled ahead in the final 100m to bring home bronze for France (+1:01). The US men finished 9th (+4:06) and Canada was 12th (+7:05).

30 / 50 km Marathons

The sun came back out for the final two days of the championships. The women’s 30km freestyle seemed to summarize the week. Johaug continued her dominance in the distance events, pulling hard from the start and separating the field before skiing solo to victory (1:14:26). Oestberg came in second (+0:36), claiming her fifth medal of the championships. Karlsson’s impressive week continued as well, proving she can also skate, as she rounded out the podium (+0:44). Diggins, who had skied strong, but just outside of medal contention most of the week, finished fourth (+1:05). It was the first championships since 2007 in Japan that the US did not win a medal. Still, the team made up of a mix of veterans and U23s was in the mix most of the week. Sadie Bjornsen and Brennen finished 15th (+4:42) and 16th (+5:21). Canadian Katherine Stewart-Jones also cracked the top-30, finishing 28th (+8:17).

The men’s 50km played out with team tactics and strategy more commonly found in cycling. After a slow start, Norway’s Hans Christer Holund “took a flyer,” to borrow cycling terminology, and pulled away from the pack around 20km into the race. No one put in an effort to chase. Holland’s lead opened to over 1:15 by 35km. The other Norwegians in the race sat seemingly comfortably in the draft, while other skiers began to chase Holund at around 40km. Bolshunov put in the biggest effort, eventually pulling away from the chase group. In the end, Holund maintained his lead for the victory (1:49:59), followed by Bolshunov in second (+0:27). Three more Norwegians rounded out the top-five, with Sjur Roethe claiming the final podium step (+0:57). Defending 50km champion, Alex Harvey finished 12th (+1:10). David Norris hung on to a strung out chase pack, finishing 20th (+1:22) and Scott Patterson finished in 23rd (+2:05).

The clang of Swiss cowbells from Dario Cologna’s traveling fan club could be heard as fans left the stadium after two weeks of racing in Seefeld. The 2021 Nordic World Championships will be held in Oberstdorf, just across the border in Germany. Stay tuned.