Miracle in Minneapolis: dream World Cup return for USA as Schumacher wins 10km

“It was crazy out there,” Gus Schumacher (USA) said to Federico Pellegrino (ITA). But it was about to get even crazier.

The Italian was just one member of a who’s who of men’s cross-country skiing royalty who crossed the finishing line as the American looked on from the leader’s throne. Simen Hegstad Krueger, Pal Golberg, Harald Oestberg Amundsen (all NOR) – still they kept coming through, still nobody could beat Schumacher’s time.

When Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo crossed the line 6.5 seconds slower, the young American must have thought he was dreaming. When the legendary Norwegian immediately came over to embrace Schumacher, he knew he was dreaming.

But events in Minneapolis on Sunday in the FIS Cross-Country World Cup proved that sometimes dreams do come true, as Schumacher won the 10km Freestyle Time Trial (Pursuit) to send a 15,000-strong crowd at the city’s Theodore Wirth Park wild.

Raised in Alaska, Schumacher was born in Madison, Wisconsin – around four hours south-east of Minneapolis – just a few months after the USA last hosted a World Cup race.

He first served notice of his potential in 2020 when he won the World Junior Championships over this distance – albeit skiing the Classic style – in Oberwiesenthal, Germany.

But in the absence of the leading US men’s skier, Ben Ogden, through glandular fever, nobody saw Schumacher’s victory on Sunday coming, despite a promising season which has included 10th place in the 25km Freestyle Pursuit in Toblach, Italy on New Year’s Day and a fourth place in the Freestyle Sprint in Davos, Switzerland two days later.

Gus turns on the gas

In contrast to many courses on the World Cup circuit, including Canmore, Canada which hosted the previous event, the Minneapolis layout doesn’t feature one main climb and descent but several shorter ones, interspersed with several ‘rollers’ and very few straight downhills with an opportunity to rest.

Schumacher perhaps benefitted from going out earlier than his illustrious rivals, beginning the first of his three laps in 35th position. Under sunny skies, the course began to warm up and break up slightly as the race progressed.

It must be said, though, that the 23-year-old also timed his run to perfection. He was the joint-third fastest after one lap, just 1.2 seconds slower than overall World Cup leader Amundsen and gradually upped the pace and the crowd dared to dream.

Schumacher was the fastest by 1.8 seconds by the end of lap two, and would eventually cross the finish line in 20 minutes, 52.7 seconds, 4.4s faster than Amundsen in second, Goldberg (5.8s) in third and Klaebo (6.5s) in fourth. All three seemed almost as pleased for Schumacher as his USA teammates, including women’s star Jessie Diggins, who mobbed the man of the hour when victory was confirmed while chants of ‘Gus, Gus, Gus!!!” rang out.

"I'm so proud of him," she said. "This team is like a family and it's great to be able to celebrate together. But this is Gus's day. It's so special and he's like a little brother to me. That was so cool, it made my whole weekend."

Schumacher, who became the first US cross-country skier to win a men’s FIS World Cup distance race and the first US winner on home soil, said: “Oh my God. It’s hard to believe. I’m just so grateful for this whole team and everyone being here. It’s just feels like it represents such a big thing for our team. I really love doing it with these guys and I hope this is the first of many. Thanks everybody for coming, this has been the best day ever.

“I gave everything I could like I do every day, and everything just went perfectly. Thank you, Minneapolis!”

After a two-week break, the FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup returns on 1 March in Lahti, Finland

Click here for the full results from Minneapolis

Follow FIS Cross-Country on Youtube here.