American skiers crush World Cup race, with Jessie Diggins winning and 4 Alaskans cracking the top 15

Welcome back, Sadie. You’re late to the party, but it’s still raging.

American cross-country skiers enjoyed one of their best days in World Cup racing Friday in Falun, Sweden, getting a victory from Minnesota’s Jessie Diggins and grabbing five spots in the top 15 — three in the women’s race, two in the men’s race.

Diggins set the tone by edging Norway’s Therese Johaug to win the women’s 10-kilometer freestyle race by 2.1 seconds.

The rest of the Americans in the top 15 were all Alaskans, including Anchorage’s Sadie Maubet Bjornsen, the two-time Olympian who delayed the start of her season to deal with injuries and to arrive in Europe fresh and energized a month before the World Championships.

Bjornsen placed 10th in her season debut, 2.4 seconds behind eighth-place Rosie Brennan of Anchorage, who was 59.1 seconds behind Diggins (23:35.9).

The results kept Diggins and Brennan atop the World Cup overall standings — Diggins is No. 1 and Brennan is No. 2, a show of force the United States has never achieved prior to this season.

In the men’s 15K race, Anchorage skiers Gus Schumacher and Scott Patterson placed eighth and 15th, respectively.

For Schumacher, a 20-year-old World Cup rookie, it was his second top-10 finish in an individual race and his ninth straight top-30 finish. For Patterson, 29, it was a career-best finish in a freestyle distance race.

“It sure is fun to see how much domination is happening on this team,” Bjornsen said by email. “While it is a strange world that limits you from giving high fives and celebrating together, the texting chains have been going off the wall. I feel lucky to be over here and part of it!”

While the American women have been major players on the World Cup scene for several years, the men have been playing catchup, and Friday marked a huge step in their progress.

Both Patterson and Schumacher spent time sitting in the leader’s chair after finishing the interval-start race. Patterson, the second skier on the course, was the leader until Schumacher, who started 24th, replaced him.

“It was sweet to spend a long time in the leader’s chair and when I was eventually unseated, have it done by a teammate,” Patterson told U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding.

Bjornsen, who won an Anchorage Cup race before leaving for Europe, said she was happy and surprised by skiing into the top 10 in her first race back on the sport’s biggest stage.

“I really wasn’t sure what to expect today, but I can’t say I was expecting to race top 10,” she said. “While things have been so amazing this winter, and I have felt in better shape than ever, I have been working through a back injury the last 5 weeks that has left my preparation for hitting (the) World Cup far from perfect.

“But, I will gladly take this as a starting point, and look forward to using the next few weeks of racing to build towards (the world championships).”

The victory was the third this season for Diggins, who has notched all of her wins this month. She boasts six career World Cup individual wins, plus Olympic and World Championship gold medals in the team sprint — both of which came with now-retired teammate Kikkan Randall of Anchorage.

Friday’s race was held in cold temperatures on a course Brennan called “confusing,” with three loops in use. It required constant vigilance, but she said she was pleased with her effort.

“I love individual start races so I wanted to start hard and see what my body had in it as we move further away from the Tour de Ski,” she said by email, referring to the demanding eight-race series that wrapped up earlier this month. “My body felt better than last week so things are coming along and on track for being in top shape for the World Championships.”

Brennan said the snow was fast and “and the course had some tricky downhills to navigate as a result.”

Schumacher said he nearly fell on one of the icy corners.

“I felt strong,” he told U.S. Skiing and Snowboarding. “The course was solid and it was cold out there, but I stayed nice and warm.

“... I’m feeling quite good aerobically, and it was fun to have some pop and quick recoveries at sea level.”

It was the second top-10 World Cup finish for Schumacher, an Alaska Winter Stars skier who ranks 27th in the overall standings and 21st in the standings for distance races.

He has scored World Cup points in his last nine individual races, a streak no American man has had in many years. Earlier this month, Schumacher grabbed eighth place in a 15K classic race in Italy.

Patterson, who turned 29 on Thursday, continued his upward trend by placing 15th, one week after finishing 21st in a 30K skiathlon and turning in one of the fastest legs to help the U.S. men place seventh in a 4x7.5K relay.

He finished 96 seconds behind winner Alexander Bolshunov of Russia (32:33.3) and 21 seconds behind Schumacher.

Patterson, Bjornsen and Brennan were among several Alaska Pacific University skiers in the race. David Norris placed 40th and Hunter Wonders was 52nd in the men’s race.