Nordic Insights
World Champs Roster Update: Who’s Actually Going to Trondheim for the U.S.?
By: Nordic Insights | February 13, 2025
By Gavin Kentch
Last Friday, U.S. Ski & Snowboard announced the 15 athletes named to the American team for 2025 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Trondheim later this month. Those athletes are:
Women: Rosie Brennan, Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, Kendall Kramer, Sophia Laukli, Kate Oldham, and Alayna Sonnesyn
Men: John Steel Hagenbuch, Luke Jager, Zak Ketterson, Zanden McMullen, Ben Ogden, JC Schoonmaker, Gus Schumacher, and Jack Young
That said, there is a difference between being named to the team for Trondheim and planning to race in Trondheim. And I don’t just mean grammatically, or hyper-technically; rather, at least two athletes named to the team intend to stay stateside to compete at NCAA Championships, which inconveniently happen in the same week.
You can find a full schedule of events for world champs here, and a full schedule of events for NCAA Championships here. TLDR, the nordic races at NCAAs are on March 6 and March 8, dates that directly conflict with the relay races and 50km skate races at World Champs. The nordic races for 2025 NCAA Championships will be held at Oak Hill Outdoor Center, just down the street from the Dartmouth campus. They promise to be [synonym for lit that an author of my age can use without trafficking in the deeply cringe].
So. World Champs in Norway will be a show. NCAAs at Dartmouth will be a show. They largely overlap. Who’s going to which? I reached out to the four current NCAA skiers on the American roster for comment, plus one specific NCAA alumna who has unfortunately suffered through a rocky start to her season, such that her current plans to race in Trondheim are legitimately newsworthy:
Here’s what I can report back:
Jack Young, Colby College: “At this point, I plan on competing in Trondheim and both races at NCAAs,” Young wrote earlier this week. (I’ll have a separate piece about projected starters out soon, but the fact that the skate sprint at World Championships is on the first day of races, February 27, and that this is a full seven days before the first race at NCAA Championships is relevant to Young’s ability to do both.)
John Steel Hagenbuch, Dartmouth College: “I am not going to go to Trondheim,” Steel Hagenbuch wrote, “which is bittersweet. I know that I could achieve success there, but I simply can’t pass up the privilege and opportunity of racing a home NCAAs for Dartmouth.”
The Dartmouth man added, “Luckily, I know that the team they’re bringing is incredibly strong and poised for some great achievements.”
Kate Oldham, Montana State University: “I’m excited to say I have accepted my spot on the World Championships team! I’ll be there ready to take the opportunity to start for Team USA. Based on how those logistics turn out, if I can get to Hanover in time for NCAAs, it would mean a lot to me to represent the Bobcats in my senior year at MSU too.”
Kendall Kramer, University of Alaska Fairbanks: “World champs distance races overlap with NCAAs so I cannot make both and I will be going to NCAAs.”
Rosie Brennan, Dartmouth College ’11:
And finally, an update on an athlete whose NCAA racing days are now somewhat behind her (Brennan graduated from Dartmouth in 2011, and was second and fifth at 2010 NCAAs; you can see her senior-year Dartmouth profile here if you would like a trip down memory lane), but whose participation at this year’s World Championships has nonetheless been somewhat in doubt, given the unfortunate health struggles she has endured so far this season.
“I will be joining the team for the tail end of pre-camp to get settled back into Euro life and the team,” Brennan wrote earlier this week. (As of today she is still in Anchorage, judging from sunrise views in a recent Instagram story that are recognizable to this Anchorage-based reporter.)
“There’s no question this prep is far from what I had originally planned heading into the season, but coming home and working with my coach was for sure the best chance I had given the circumstances,” Brennan continued. “It’s been great to work with Erik Flora on a daily basis — there is no one who knows me better and no one who is as positive and optimistic in less-than-ideal situations. I have had some good training sessions and am feeling ready to return to racing. I will figure out a specific race plan when I get over there and see how my body is responding.”
Racing in Trondheim kicks off with the skate sprint on February 27, and stretches through the women’s 50km skate on March 9. Nordic Insights will have two reporters, Noah Eckstein and Lukas Pigott, on site throughout the week.
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