March 03, 2011 (Oslo, Norway) – This time it was four gold jackets, and a bit of a squeeze to fit Vibek Skofterud, Therese Johaug, Kristin  Stoermer and Marit Bjoergen into the royal box above Holmenkollen, but the Norwegian team took yet another bow, finishing the tough 4×5 km relay course in a total time of 53:30.

It was the exact same team that took the Olympic gold just over a year ago. When they went for their morning jog, they did not discuss the race – in fact they didn’t really speak at all. They knew what they had to do.

The Swedes were 36:1 seconds back and the Finns, who traded places with Sweden throughout the race, settled for the bronze at 59:8 seconds back. Italy, who led the first leg, finished 4th at 1:26:1 minutes back, with a young, relatively new German team in  5th at 1:41:8 back, and Russia in 6th at 2:15:4 back.

The American team of Kikkan Randall, Holly Brooks, Liz Stephens and Jessica Diggins claimed a solid 9th at 2:54:7 minutes back. Canada’s team of Daria Gaiazova, Perianne Jones, Chandra Crawford and Brooke Gosling brought up the rear in 14th place at 4:49:2 minutes back.

Bjoergen now has four gold medals from these championships and the 30km is still to come. Right now she has tied Russian skier Elena Vaelbe’s record. Church bells rung as the sun made a valiant attempt to burn away the fog, and a suspicious “Norwegian Army” band that wore an interesting assortment of “uniforms” (and smelled like they had had their favourite drinks for breakfast) struck up the their version of Norwegian marching songs.

The mix if royalty, crazy fans, and drunk musicians swirling about her fourth gold medal win, made it impossible for Bjoergen to do anything but give us that beautiful confident smile as she slowed down enough to play to the crowd in the finishing stretch.

When she was asked why, as the anchor leg, she sped up around the course and had the fastest lap time of the race (12:45) even though she was given a 34-second lead by her teammates, she said, “It is not so easy to slow down in the track. There are lots of people around – I knew 34 seconds was enough, but you have to stand on your skis. All the other girls did a good job for the team. Also there are other girls on the team who didn’t race today – but we are together 200-250 days a year. For sure we had this goal for a long time.”

The crowd, which was at beyond capacity as thousands also camped along the ski trail, was so loud she couldn’t possibly hear the split times, so they were to be written on a piece of paper instead. But the paper had no numbers – just the words “Gold Medal.”

Bjoergen added that it was also a goal to find a Norwegian flag and come across the line waving it, which meant she wanted the team to be so far ahead, there would be no need to sprint. She was certainly able to do this.

Barring terrible wax, which their technicians would never allow, the Norwegians were unbeatable after the second leg.  Italy’s Marianna Longa led on the first classic leg (2×5 classic followed by 2×5 skate) with a time of 13:47, followed by Sweden’s Ida Ingemarsdotter (13:49), who said afterwards that her gold medal race in the Team Sprint classic on the previous day before did not tire her.

“I hoped the team would feel good confidence,” commented Ingemarsdotter. “When you have had such good skis on the downhill you can keep a smile on your face. Maybe people thought we were going to be tired after such hard work, but we went with the flow. We are doing what we love to do – ski fast.”

Ingemarsdotter’s confidence was passed on to her teammate Anna Haug on the second leg, who dropped Italy’s Antonella Confortola Wyatt (14:56), and gave the three Scandinavian countries control of the race as Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen, who had won bronze in the team sprint classic, went out fast, with Norway’s Therese Johaug soon matching her.

It didn’t take too long during Johaug’s leg for the Norwegian gold machine to take command and create a gap that Finland and Sweden traded places trying to close. But the Norwegian was just too strong for them and by the time she handed off to Norway’s first skate racer, Kristin Stoermer Steira, they had a 13-second lead.

Stoermer Steira increased it with a 12:58 5 km skate, Sweden’s Britta Norgren Johansson tried to bridge, but her time of 13:24, and Finland’s  Riitta-Liisa Roponen’s 13:20 couldn’t do it. Stormer Steira entered the transition zone giving Bjoergen a 34 second lead.

The Swedes may have understood that the Norwegians were going to be unbeatable, but afterwards Charlotte Kalla said she “felt quite good after doing a hard race yesterday. I am in good shape and have good recovery. I have looked forward to this relay for a long time. I think that’s the most important thing – to look forward – it’s more psychological than physical.”

It was, without question, a Scandinavian sweep, but Italy fought back with anchor Arianna Follis flying with a 12:53:2 lap, giving them the fourth spot.

Team USA was pleased with their top ten result, but no doubt it is the experience of racing in a Nordic-mad city like Oslo that is making the biggest impression.

Randall skied the opening classic leg handing off to Brooks in eighth who lost a bit of ground tagging Stephen in 11th. Stephen skated to the ninth fastest time moving them up to 10th and Diggins pulled a strong anchor leg to pass Japan for ninth, finishing at 2:54.7 back.

“I was really happy with our day,” said Diggins in a USSA release. “It was pretty nerve wracking with Marit Bjoergen and Charlotte Kalla anchoring for their teams. The noise was incredible – pretty much every single inch of the course someone was cheering. They were chanting USA. Some of them had a start list and would say your name. That was really cool.”

Brooks said she felt they had a decent race adding ,“Our team was really happy to come in 9th – potentially the best we’ve done in a while. Kikkan brought us in right behind Russia and Japan and I did my best to stick with them. I kept Russia in sight the whole time but Japan was gone – Masako Ishida usually skis top 10 in classic World Cup so I knew that sticking with her was a stretch.  Two k into the race Petra [Majdic] and Justyna [Kowalczyk] passed me. I skied with them for a short while and then they took off. After that it was me and the crowd…”

“It was a really fun day today and great to see the sun,” Liz Stephen, who ran the first skate leg, told SkiTrax by email. “The tracks were super fast and our wax texchs and coaches nailed the skate skis today too. Every day the fans have been amazing, but today was out of hand. Relay days are what I live for! It is great to be part of such a fun and inspiring team right now. And how cool to see Canada on the top step yesterday – as exciting for me as it would be if it was the USA anthem playing.”

Full results HERE.

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