Super Sundling (SWE) crashes Diggins’ homecoming party with first distance victory
Feb 18, 2024·Cross-Country“Holy crap, we’ve all gotta show up now!” Sophia Laukli (USA) echoed the thoughts of all 12 US skiers in the women’s field after Gus Schumacher’s shock victory in the men’s 10km Freestyle on Sunday raised hopes among the crowd that they might have two home winners to celebrate in the country’s first FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup event for 23 years.
Unfortunately for Laukli, hometown girl Jessie Diggins (USA) and the rest, Jonna Sundling (SWE) forgot to read the script. The Swedish sprint specialist – the Olympic and double World Champion over the shorter distance – has struggled at times this season, with teammate Linn Svahn dominating the sprint standings having recovered from a serious shoulder injury.
But after five other podiums, Sundling picked her first victory of 2023/24 – and first ever World Cup distance win – on Saturday with a dominant victory in the sprint and carried that imperious form through to Sunday, blowing away the rest of the field on an unusual course in Theodore Wirth Park.
It would have been particularly disappointing for Diggins, who campaigned hard to bring the event to Minneapolis, but in finishing third with a thrilling late burst in front of her adoring fans, the Tour de Ski winner and World Cup leader did at least extend her lead in the overall standings, with closest rival Svahn one place further back in fourth.
Despite her Freestyle prowess – she won the first two 10km ‘skate’ races of the season – Diggins’ home-field advantage was limited given she hadn’t raced on the course since she was 19 years old.
Now 32, she said: “It was getting slushy and it was getting a little slower every lap so I knew that I had to keep working everything, there was almost no rest out there, which is why I like this course. My strategy was to go as hard as I can the whole time and try to finish with about 2k left and hope the crowd would carry me back to the finish line - and they did.”
Sundling’s day, but crowds seal the show
There’s no doubt whose day it was, though. Going out in 38th position, six behind teammate Frida Karlsson (SWE), but ahead of the majority of her rivals, Sundling’s plan was “to be cool in the beginning and then push at the end” but she was red-hot throughout. After the first of three laps on a twisting, undulating course unlike most on the World Cup circuit, the 29-year-old was 8.8 seconds faster than Svahn. After two laps, the gap had grown to 12.5s, this time over Karlsson; by the end, Sundling was 15.4s clear of distance specialist Karlsson, who has three World Cup victories over 10km.
As Schumacher proved earlier in the day, though, this was a course that seemed to suit the sprinters. Only three of Sundling’s previous 30 World Cup podiums had come over the longer distances, although she did finish fourth in the 30km Mass Start at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics.
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