February 24, 2015 (Falun, Sweden) – Team USA was on fire in the women’s 10km FR individual race with Jessie Diggins and Caitlin Gregg delivering stellar performances to claim silver and bronze for a historic podium. But the day belonged to Charlotte Kalla who captured the gold and the hearts of the hometown crowd in Falun with a resounding victory by 41 seconds over Diggins.

“This was a dream come true. Winning my favorite distance at home in Sweden,” said a smiling Kalla who made good in challenging conditions as heavy snow began falling while she and other late starters were on course.

While Kalla’s victory was not so surprising the USA’s double podium was a stunning affirmation of the team’s evolution to a world-class level that began year’s ago with American super-star Kikkan Randall, who finished 15th today. Her teammate Liz Stephen finished a strong 10th putting four US skiers in the top 15 with two on the podium.

While the zero degree weather and snowfall became a positive opportunity for Sweden and the USA it was not good news for Norway as their top skiers Marit Bjoergen and Therese Johaug were well off the pace at over 2min behind. The best Norwegian Heidi Weng finished in 22nd almost two minutes behind Kalla.

No one could have predicted such an outcome and clearly the mid-race snowfall proved to be an advantage for the early skiers but as Diggins commented post-race, “I knew today today I had great skis, and I skied my heart out to create the opportunity. Our coaches have told us when you see a chance don’t just take it – drive a Mack truck through it.”

During the early part of the season when Norway was dominating so many races there was talk about how dangerous it might be for the sport as interest could die out internationally. With Sweden, USA, France, Switzerland, Finland and Japan all in the top ten it appears the opposite may be true.

Canada’s Emily Nishikawa finished 30th and Perianne Jones was 32nd for a solid effort as well as their teammate Alex Harvey also skied into the history books with silver and bronze at the beginning of these championships. Now with four medals midway through the Worlds it’s clear that the North American cross-country train has arrived.

As the race began this morning Kalla was nervous and longed to get on her bib and go. Before the start her final choice of skis was made very late when it started to snow even more.

”I knew it could be a late change of skis. I had two pairs with me and the choice was made just a couple of minutes before the start,” said Kalla.

A very successful choice as Sweden, like Team USA, clearly had very good skis, but for Norway and others it seems that they missed the mark this time.

“Charlotte has been looking forward to this race since Falun won the bid many years ago,” her boyfriend Anders Svanebo told Trax. “She has been dreaming of it over the past year and it’s amazing that it has come true.”

Gregg set an early best time and enjoyed a stint in the hot seat until Diggins her teammate unseated her by five seconds with a very good time of 25:49.8 – then the waiting game began as the rest of the skiers came in.

“I was skiing so hard and gave it everything that I had but didn’t realize that it could mean a medal,” said Diggins. “When I crossed the line I had no idea where I finished. I was in so much pain – I couldn’t think or move. I didn’t even realize it was Caitlin coming to congratulate me – I was out of it and had nothing more to give.”

In the end there was only one skier that was faster and it was Charlotte Kalla who dominated from start to finish – at 5km she was 17 seconds ahead of Diggins, while Johaug by comparison was 26th at 52 seconds behind.

“It was important to have the right focus throughout the race. The coaches shouted that I was going for the gold… so I concentrated and worked hard all the way. I was so tired of the peak of a hill that I double-poled over the crest. The coaches were wondering what I was doing but my legs were so tired,” said Kalla.

Diggins and Gregg including the entire American camp were obviously very happy after the race. Diggins was hoping for a top six on a good day, but she ended up with the silver just ahead of Gregg who she began training with at the age of 16.

”When Charlotte came in and crossed the line I thought that’s okay. I didn’t realize that everyone else was so far behind her and that I was still on the podium. Then I found my coaches and had never seen some of them cry before. It was really cool. I was thinking, this is not happening,” Diggins explained.

“During the race I got good split times from our coaches but also from the Swedes and others. Coaches from different countries were yelling ‘Come on Jessica’… it was really cool.

“Because I had an earlier start number I was thinking that I had to fight and go hard as fast skiers were coming later. I broke the race down into five different climbs and attacked each one and tried to recover on the downhills. It was snowing and I knew that the course was going to be slower so on the downhills I wasn’t putting my skis on edge, it was risky but very, very fast.

”For me this was an amazing course. I paced the Mordarbacken like I wanted but you had to be careful as the crowds and the fans were amazing and you just want to start going crazy, but you can blow up.

”It’s a big gliding course and the downhills take a lot of work. I love downhills like that. I’ve always had good races here in Falun so I had a good feeling at the start.

”Usually the team events get me more fired up but to be here with Caitlin it feels like another team event. It’s so cool. Just the fact that we are making some history here with the first US women to podium in a distance event at championships is really crazy.

”Our coach Matt [Whitcomb] said at our meeting last night that at the World Championships and Olympic Games, sometimes crazy things happen. People who are favorites don’t always come out on top. You never know. Especially with the snow today. It’s like okay here is a chance, why not me? I had trained as hard as anyone and I wanted it as much as anyone. With that in mind we went out there today and just fought so hard.

”I’m so lucky because I feel US skiing had been pushing us towards this and it’s not just me and Caitlin up here on the podium. It’s the entire ski community in United States. It took so many people to get us here and the coaches did an amazing job with the skis, and the atmosphere and the team has been so much fun, and the energy has been great. I feel so happy and proud to be part of this team,” concluded Diggins.

We caught up with Diggins’ parents back home in Afton, MN for their impressions on the day. “We are on cloud 9 here in Afton. Today is so special for Team USA and especially for the Minnesota Nordic Ski Community that Jessie grew up in, and which has supported Jessie and Caitlin with unwavering enthusiasm through all of their ups and downs.  Every coach, friend and supporter who has been behind them every step of the way to this podium (and most of whom were watching the live feed this morning) is enjoying this day along with us.  And what a reward to the US Team coaches and wax technicians, who put our athletes in a position to be competitive with the world.

“It was exciting to see Jessie put it all together to ski smart, dig deep and lay it all out there, skiing the kind of race we have always believed she is capable of.  Her joy on the podium put tears in our eyes. We are so very proud of her as a person and as an athlete,” wrote Deb and Clay Diggins by email.

Bronze medalist Gregg was 6th with Randall in the Team Sprint at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver and now she has a World Championship medal.

”I started with bib #3 and the goal was to take the lead when I finished. It took probably 20-30 skiers to come in before I realized that I had a really great time. I’m fully aware of how lucky I am that it snowed,” Gregg told SkiTrax. ”When I crossed the finish line I thought that it was a good effort. I knew my skis were really, really good – I could tell by the girls around me.

”There are many people and so much behind us including all of the fans back home cheering. Our skis were just so great and the energy was so great. I was so excited just to race today,” added Gregg.

We caught up with Caitlin’s husband, Brian on site for his take on things. ”What an incredible day. Everything coming together and it’s really awesome. The support crew with the US team we have is quite a bit smaller budget than other programs but they’ve got a really good system and I was really happy that they allowed me to be part of it. I just came to Falun yesterday to work on testing. We previewed the course and try to treat it like any other race. We laugh and make some jokes, keeping it relaxed but also really, really dialed in. We had great skis, great structure and great wax.”

For Stephen in 10th it was a super day at the office. “Four in the top 15 is a good day for us fore sure. The snow made it quite fun. This is better than anyone could have imagined – a really special day.

”It was a great race for me. The snow definitely threw in an unexpected twist. I skied a really good race and while it was not the podium that I was going for we took up two spots on it,” she said with a laugh.

Randall was ecstatic for her teammates tweeting, “Some corks popping tonight! Such a sweet day for our entire team. So cool to see everything come together to do what we’ve known was possible all along. Big congrats to our medalists @jessiediggins and @CaitlinGregg.”

Her 15th place today was her best distance result this year but, ”I was hoping for more today. I didn’t feel as strong as I did in Ostersund a week ago. I’m going into every race hoping to find a little bit better form and today I didn’t really make the improvements I was hoping for – but I had fantastic skis and was definitely passing others on the downhills,” she added smiling.

We also caught up with Canada’s Jones. “It was pretty crazy when it started snowing and it was hard to see. I had very low expectations going in because I’m more of a sprinter so I was pleased with my result,” said Jones. “I had a little bit of a cold last week and I’m just getting over that.

“I didn’t know how my body would be today but I felt really good and I was really happy to be out here. We had great skis and our techs are doing an amazing job this season. The two Americans on the podium was amazing and truly inspiring – great for the sport,” she commented.

Bill Koch was the only US skier to win a distance medal at the Nordic Worlds winning bronze at the 1982 Championships in Oslo, Norway. We spoke with Marty Hall, who was the US Head Coach back then and is currenty recovering from an operation, who told Trax that when he heard about Diggins and Gregg, “… they had to chain me to the bed.”

Finally we checked in with US Head Coach, Chris Grover, and Women’s Coach Matt Whitcomb.

“We’re fairly stoked over here. It was an amazing day for the women’s team. Of course it definitely surprised us, as you might imagine. We ended getting a little bit lucky today but things also came together for us. For sure we had some of the best skis, if not the best skis in the field today. That really allowed those gals to ski fast before it started snowing but also to continue to ski pretty fast as the heavy snow started to come down.

“We had some athletes that were really ready to go and have a good race…and we got a little lucky with an early start number for Caitlin and Jessie benefited from starting in the middle of the field. It ended up being a little bit unlucky for Liz who also had an incredible race but just could not compete with such a late start number.

“This season hasn’t gone exactly as planned with some bad luck along the way but we’re halfway through the championships and the team is healthy… today is an excellent confirmation that we’re moving in the right direction,” said Grover.

Whitcomb was pleased for Diggins and Gregg adding that having positive team chemistry is an important part of their success.

“Today was certainly challenging but not as different or difficult as any other race on the circuit despite what you may read tomorrow in the Scandinavian press. What you saw today was a couple of athletes step up to the plate, swing really hard, and connect. They ended up on the podium and their teammates finished tenth and fifteenth. The conditions were difficult but what’s more difficult is to have to ski those conditions – they made it work when perhaps others struggled a little bit.

“This is a great lifetime result for both Jessie and Caitlin… we’ve seen Caitlin ski this way before and while I’m a little surprised that she was able to time it so well and make it happen today, it’s really not that surprising. Caitlin is that good at cross-country skiing and it’s the same with Jessie. This level of performance is in both of them and they were able to put it together on the fourth day of these Championships.

“Team chemistry has so much to do with athletes competing well and the team’s recent video is testimony to that chemistry. Our philosophy is… get the team right and the results can happen,” commented Whitcomb.

Full results here.
Teleconference here.
Uptown Funk video here.