Sullivan: "The team was built wth personality in mind. We were loaded with personality up and down the lineup. There are whisky drinkers and milk drinkers, and we have a lot of whisky drinkers on this team."
I've had a couple requests asking my family's take on this. First off, it's the first time someone on the USA Men's Cross Country team has gotten a silver metal in 50 years. Ben Ogden almost catching Klæbo is a huge leap forward for the US in this sport. The Norwegians dominate this sport every year. They are extremely well funded in this sport compared to the states. Biathalon was invented by the Norwegian army, as they patrol their border. Skiing is what they do, and part of their national defense. They grow up on skis. This is like if the Norwegians produced someone who could almost touch our Michael Jordan in basketball. This is their superstar. So hats off to Ben Ogden for the silver metal! That is NO SMALL THING!
But also, look at Klæbo here! When I asked my husband, and my pro skier son about this hill, the only word they both said was "insane."
Do you guys have any idea how hard this is? Not only do you have to have your wax just perfect (that's where the support team comes into play--and the wax job on these skis must have been a work of art and perfection for the conditions) he's just sprinting like the ground is flat. These hills are steep, and slippery. Moving this fast on a hill like that is truely insane. You use kick wax for hills like this, so your ski can grip the snow without gliding. The rest of your ski has glide wax for speed on the downhills. But for the uphills, there's an area of your ski where you put kick wax, and you have to literally kick straight down to engage that wax with the snow and grip. So not only is he going forward quickly, he's having to pound his foot downward in a hard kick with each step to grip the snow and not slip backwards. You don't lightfoot it up a hill, you pound up a hill. He's pounding, but making it look like he's lightfooting because it's so crazy fast. He gained 5 seconds on the rest of the skiers in just this one hill.
Watch Alex Singleton on Dondrea Tillman's interception against the Raiders.
Celebrating. Lending a crushing block. Doing all this while battling THAT.
Respect for life.