Diggins Dominates 10k Skate, Wins 26th Individual World Cup
At the first interval of Sunday's 10k skate, it was clear that Jessie Diggins was here to do one thing - win. And she did just that, taking home her 26th individual World Cup victory and her fifth of the 2024-25 season. Adding onto a successful day for the Stifel U.S. Ski Team, Gus Schumacher had a strong day with a 10th-place result, alongside teammates Kendall Kramer and Kate Oldham, who notched their career-best World Cup results.
The men kicked things off today for the final day of racing in sunny Cogne, Italy. The U.S. team has six men at the start: Walker Hall, Zak Ketterson, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, Schumacher, and Hunter Wonders. With the interval start format, it was an athlete against the clock. But, at the 4.5k mark, it was clear that Schumacher was having a strong race. The young U.S. skier, who captured his first World Cup win a year ago at the Stifel Loppet Cup in Minneapolis, MN, looked determined to make every second count. Through the intervals, Schumacher maintained his position within the top 10. Into the finishing stretch, Schumacher of Anchorage, AK, crossed the line in tenth, collapsing at the finish after a hard day's work. After spending the last few weeks back home in Alaska, Schumacher traveled several time zones and thousands of miles away from home to a quick turnaround to racing. This weekend, his focus was to find his speed. Today, he did just that.
"Today felt really good!" said Schumacher, post-race. I could tell in the warmup that things were kinda in a good place. I still didn’t feel adjusted for altitude racing, but it felt good to ski smoothly and powerfully the whole time. It's nice to have some good feelings going into this camp next week, which finishes off the time at altitude. I'll be able to chill out and hits some races in Falun!"
However, Norway’s Harald Østberg Amundsen stole the spotlight today. Skiing the 10k in an astonishing 19 minutes and 39 seconds, Amundsen made a clear statement about his continued dominance this season. Teammates Iver Tildheim Andersen was second and Martin Loewstroem Nyenget third. Ogden was the second fastest American man today in 24th, Ketterson just outside top 30 in 32nd, McMullen 43rd, Wonders 46th and Hall 48th.
In the women's 10k skate, Diggins was unstoppable from the start. She controlled the race from the get-go, with her lead growing at every interval. Her performance was remarkable; she clocked a sub-24-minute time— the only woman to ski sub-24 on the day— to claim her 26th individual World Cup victory.
Diggins has been in impressive form this season despite battling an injury earlier in the year, which started during the Tour de Ski, and claims her 21st distance World Cup win across 351 World Cup starts.
“The crowd was amazing — I was so thankful for the cheering,” said Diggins after the race. “It was a beautiful day and I just wanted to go really hard, and I did! It’s nice to know that the hard work in training is paying off. Now, I’m excited for a fun and beautiful training camp before the World Championships.”
For the U.S. women, Oldham was 16th and Kramer was 18th - both career-best results for the young Americans and a confidence boost before the two athletes headed to Italy for the Under-23 World Championships. Kramer, who just wrapped up her collegiate running career, thrives in technical distance races and today's result is a testament to her fitness this season. For Oldham, the Montana State University athlete, the last couple weeks on the World Cup have been nothing short of impressive.
"I’m still here to learn and focus on process goals, but today’s result is icing on the cake of an amazing first experience at World Cup," said Oldham. "It’s a testament to my support system of coaches, techs, teammates, friends and family. “Career best result” is something we’re always chasing as athletes. It may become more elusive as I accumulate more World Cup starts, but for now it’s just adding to the fun of the racing."
Second place, after Diggins, went to Astrid Oeyre Slind of Norway and Kerttu Niskanen of Finland.
As the season heats up and the World Championships loom, there is one more weekend of racing at the site of last year's World Cup Finals in Falun, Sweden.
