In first events, Alaska skiers ride Olympic roller coaster to highs and lows

ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA — On a brutally tough course, in the thin air of altitude and atop cold, dry snow, there’s nowhere for cross-country skiers to hide on the trails at Zhangjiakou.

And in the first days of racing here, that challenge has laid bare the full range of Olympic experience for Alaskans competing here, from highs to deep lows.

On Sunday, Scott Patterson, a veteran who trains with Alaska Pacific University, tied his career-best Olympic finish of 11th — showing in the 30-kilometer skiathlon race that he’s found his peak fitness at just the right time, after a wrist fracture and surgery derailed the start to his season.

“To be 11th in the Olympics — for Scott, for anybody is just an unbelievable feat. So we’re partying like we won,” said Matt Whitcomb, the head coach of the U.S. team. “Except, it’s a COVID party, with no actual party.”

Five minutes after Patterson’s finish, an exhausted, dejected Gus Schumacher, who trains with the Alaska Winter Stars program, crossed the line in 39th — far from where he and his coaches had hoped.

[Alexander Bolshunov wins Olympic gold in 30K skiathlon]

The two Alaskans were the entirety of Team USA on Sunday, as the only Americans racing. Their results showed just how little margin for error exists at the Olympics and on Zhangjiakou’s trail system, where several coaches described Saturday’s race as one of the hardest they’d ever witnessed.

“It’s pretty binary: If you miss today, you miss big,” Whitcomb said.

Alexander Bolshunov of Russia won the race in a dominating performance, beating his teammate Denis Spitsov by a full minute even after slowing to wave a Russian flag on the homestretch. Other star athletes were humbled, like Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo — one of the pre-race favorites who finished nine minutes off the winning pace, one second behind Schumacher.

“I fought. I tried really hard. But that just, like, obviously was never going to do it today,” said Schumacher, 21, who gamely fielded questions after a tough race. “I’m proud of myself for pushing the entire way and finishing. But I’ll have more races, and better races. And I know I just need to be patient.”

[Full results, men’s 15km + 15km skiathlon]

At the other end of the Olympic spectrum was Patterson, 30.

The Alaska-born athlete broke his wrist in a “stupid little crash” on Anchorage’s Hillside bike trails in August, sliding out on a corner on a dirt track at the end of a ride.

“I felt like I was in a great place for training, but then all of a sudden things were derailed,” he said.

He decided to get surgery in late October, and ideally would have given his wrist two months in a cast and three before using it. Instead, his return to the European World Cup circuit began a month and a half later.

“I had a few dark days where the whole season seemed to be going up in smoke,” he said.

While he recovered, Patterson trained with a single ski pole — far from ideal race preparation but a way to stay in shape — and raced his first few events in a brace.

Neither his wrist nor his fitness were ready for the start of the season, and Patterson skied to pedestrian results. But things started to feel good, he said, in time for Olympic qualifying events at the U.S. national championships last month, where strong — if not sensational — results helped him squeak on to the American team.

Those races gave Patterson “some confidence,” and he said he was optimistic headed into Saturday’s race.

“But it definitely was a big question mark,” he said.

After a fast, chaotic start, Patterson said he saw gaps forming in the lead pack. He said he fought to hold on for the whole first half of the race, skied in the classic technique, where athletes stride and glide like runners.

In the skiathlon race, athletes switch to the freestyle technique — which looks like ice skating on skis — at the halfway mark, while the clock keeps running. At that point, Patterson said he found a little more of a groove, working with a French athlete to pick off a few places.

After a career-best 11th place finish at the 2018 Olympics in South Korea, Patterson was gunning for a top 10 Sunday. He briefly worked his way into that position near the end of the race, passing a couple of rivals on his way up a long hill — but he was tired enough from that push that they caught him on the way down.

Nonetheless, the result was an encouraging start.

“Looking forward to more racing,” he said.

Two other Alaskans competed a day earlier in the women’s skiathlon event, which at 15 kilometers was half as far as the men’s race.

Rosie Brennan, who lives in Anchorage and trains with APU, notched 14th place, some three minutes behind Norwegian winner Therese Johaug.

A decade ago, a top-15 Olympic finish for an American cross-country skier would have been cause for celebration.

But given that the U.S. women, including Brennan, have been skiing to podium after podium in the past few years, her result Sunday elicited something of a shoulder shrug — what she called “a step in the right direction and something I’m proud of,” even if “it wasn’t my best.”

The 14th place was a huge improvement on Brennan’s only other Olympic result, when, in 2018, she competed while fighting mononucleosis and placed third-to-last.

Early this season, Brennan, 33, beat many of the world’s best women in a few international races, before the coronavirus pandemic canceled pre-Olympic competitions. She raced in medal contention early Saturday before the leaders slipped away, but said she’s hoping the effort will kick-start her fitness after nearly two months away from top-level racing.

“I certainly have had some workouts that have indicated that I’m in good shape. And so I do want more, and I think I can get more. And so I’m looking forward to the other races,” she said.

Hailey Swirbul, who grew up in Colorado and now trains with Brennan at APU, finished 40th, in what she described as a “tough, tough day.”

Like the rest of the women, Swirbul battled frigid, gusty winds that appear likely to plague athletes over the next two weeks of racing here.

“I felt like I was on an Arctic expedition by myself out there,” she said. “But I think when you’re in it, you put your game face on.”

Nat Herz is an Anchorage Daily News reporter who’s covering the Olympics for the ADN and FasterSkier.com. He also reported on-site from Games in 2014 in Russia, and 2010 in Vancouver.