U.S. women claim their best-ever Olympic relay finish
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – They put on happy faces and said all the right things, but deep down they had to be disappointed with a fifth-place finish at the Pyeongchang Olympics.
The U.S. women’s 4x5 kilometer relay team wasn’t expected to win the race Saturday night at the Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Center, but it was expected to contend for the podium.
And that would have been huge, because no U.S. woman has ever won an Olympic medal in cross-country skiing.
After Sophie Caldwell led off and put the Americans in a 1 minute 1.5-second hole, though, it was just too much ground to make up, especially against the powerhouse teams from Norway and Sweden.
On the bright side, it was the best-ever relay finish by U.S. women.
“While we tend to be really focused on the medals, because we know deep in our hearts it’s still possible, I think it’s amazing to put together four strong legs today and get the best-ever result and keep the pathway going forward,” said Kikkan Randall, who took the third leg.
Norway won the race in 51:24.3, with anchor Marit Bjoergen holding off Sweden’s Stina Nilsson by 2 seconds in a thrilling finish. The 37-year-old Bjoergen captured her 13th Olympic medal, tying her with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for the most Winter Games medals ever.
The Olympic Athletes from Russia led the first half of the race with strong classic skiing and were just 0.3 seconds behind Norway with 5 kilometers to go. Anchor Anna Nechaevskaya faded badly, though, and the Russians finished 43.3 seconds behind. They still won the bronze medal by a comfortable margin.
Jesse Diggins, 26, who grew up in Minnesota but trains in Stratton, Vt., has had an impressive week, with a fifth-place finish in skiathlon, a sixth in sprint classic, a fifth in 10-kilometer freestyle and yet another fifth in the relay skiing the anchor leg.
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Still no medal, however, for the leader of the U.S. team.
“Every time you get to put on the relay socks it’s a big honor and it’s a privilege,” she said. “You know that you’re racing not just for yourself, you’re racing for your teammates, you’re racing for the people who did not get named to the relay but easily could have and are out there cheering on the course, and you’re racing for Team USA.
“I got to see each of my teammates ski their heart out and I was getting more and more fired up watching them, like, ‘OK, it’s my turn, I’m going to go reel in as many people as I can and we’re going to walk away proud of what we did here today.’ Because there’s more to it than just medals.”
Caldwell did ski her heart out, but she was 11th of 14 skiers at the handoff. Sadie Bjornsen, Randall and Diggins didn’t pick up any ground on Norway, but they did pass six skiers to move the U.S. into fifth place.
Randall, a five-time Olympian, said the next generation of skiers showed podium potential and offered some perspective on just how far the U.S. women’s program has come.
“I think we’ve been able to figure out a lot about how to make this a lifestyle, make it sustainable,” she said. “We’ve learned a lot about training and most importantly we’ve gained a lot of confidence. So the world those girls are coming up through is a very different world than when I went to my first Olympics when we weren’t even sure whether we wanted to put a relay in because we knew we couldn’t be competitive.
“I think the belief, the path and the right training, those girls are coming through way ahead of where we started. And I’m going to have so much fun watching them.”