For the first time since the Ford administration, an American man is back on an Olympic cross-country skiing podium. Ben Ogden grabbed silver in the men's sprint classic Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Games, ending a 50-year medal drought for the US in the sport, NBC News reports. Ogden, 24, becomes only the second American man ever to medal in Olympic cross-country skiing, joining fellow Vermonter Bill Koch, who won silver in the 50km at Innsbruck in 1976.
Ogden came up through the Bill Koch Youth Ski League and has trained with Koch. "It's an unbelievable dream come true," Ogden said, adding that in the last year he'd finally allowed himself to aim specifically for an Olympic podium. "Ben and Koch live quite close to each other and Ben idolized Bill growing up," Catamounts Nordic head coach Patrick Weaver, Ogden's former coach, tells the Burlington Free Press.
Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo edged Ogden by a second to claim gold in 3:39, his seventh Olympic title, while Norwegian teammate Oskar Opstad Vike took bronze. Ogden had signaled he was a serious threat early, logging the second-fastest qualifying time. He powered away from his quarterfinal heat on an uphill section, then reached the final as the quickest "lucky loser" after a photo finish left him third in his semifinal.
- The day brought mixed results for the rest of Team USA. On the men's side, three Americans made the sprint field, though only Ogden advanced to the final. In the women's sprint, Sweden swept the medals, with Linn Svahn winning gold ahead of Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist. All four American women reached the quarterfinals, but Jessie Diggins—skiing with bruised ribs from the skiathlon—faded in her heat. Julia Kern advanced as a "lucky loser" to the women's final and finished sixth.
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