The Winter Olympics are underway in Italy with a bevy of Alaska athletes, after a ceremonial torch lighting in Milan.
Anchorage-based reporter Nat Herz is there following cross-country skiing, where several Alaskans have competed in two separate events, though — spoiler alert — none has come close to the medals yet.
Herz spoke to Alaska Public Media's Casey Grove from the Dolomites.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Nat Herz: Yeah, well, I guess I will just start by getting straight to the point. We talked when I was on to table set the Winter Olympics that we had an Anchorage-raised athlete, cross-country skier Gus Schumacher, who was a legitimate medal hopeful. He was coming in with podiums in the past couple weeks (in the World Cup) before the Olympics against the same athletes that would be racing here.
Gus has had, so far, two events in Italy where he could have been strong, but in the first one, unfortunately, he had a crash, and then in the second race, in the sprint race, where it's like a qualifying round, and the top 30 advance to these head-to-head medal rounds, he actually, shockingly, was not able to get into that top 30. So yeah, really kind of rough start for for the pride of Alaska, Gus Schumacher.
Casey Grove: Yeah, for sure, it was a bummer in the race that he crashed. You just kind of didn't see him for the whole race, and then, like you said, the other one, he didn't qualify. How is he taking it?
NH: Yeah, it's interesting. You know, four years ago, I was in Beijing following the Olympics there, and Gus was racing at age 21 and actually had, like, a real series of brutally difficult races there that I think was really hard for him to process. And you could sort of see it on him there. It just was really heavy emotionally this time around.
It's interesting, like, he was definitely frustrated (after the races in Italy). I think he was frustrated the first day, but then to have this second day where things like didn't go right in a way that he didn't expect, it was hard for him. But I think you can really see that he's a lot more mature and just better prepared and more resilient, and hopefully able to move past these admittedly tough results.
CG: Well, how about the other Alaska ski racers?
NH: So JC Schoonmaker is another guy who trains with the Alaska Pacific University team in Anchorage, and he has also been on the podium in the past in this discipline called sprinting against all these same athletes. He's actually had a tougher start to his racing season this winter, though, with some crashes, but he made it into the semifinals, which sort of guarantees him a spot in the top 12, and he raced his way to eighth place, which was, like, really a big achievement for him at kind of the biggest event of the season.
CG: That's awesome, yeah. You also witnessed a historic result in cross-country skiing by a non-Alaskan American, too, is that right?
NH: Yeah, that's right. This was honestly just a super inspiring result and moment. This younger guy, Ben Ogden from Vermont, he's definitely had some success before but is also not a regular on the podium by any means, and he just had the race of his life and finished second in the sprint race for the silver medal. This was the first time an American man had won an Olympic medal in literally a half-century in cross-country skiing.
I would like to just note that the last guy to do it before Ben is a Vermonter named Bill Koch, and he and I went to the same high school, so maybe I'll be the next one.
CG: I just think the common point there is Nat Herz, you know. And also, Nat, I feel like you're kind of leaving something out here. I saw a picture on your social media feeds where you were very close to this silver medal.
NH: Yeah, you know, Ben Ogden came through past reporters and had this medal, and I was like, "I've never touched one. Can I? Can I touch it?" And he was like, "Sure." So I sort of held it for a second and lifted it while it was around his neck. And I was like, "Dang, that's heavy." And I was honestly like, if I had to guess, five pounds, like it was dense.
And then I did like a basic Google, and the Olympic silver medal is 500 grams, which is one pound. So maybe it is the emotional gravity that is adding to the weight of that metal in your hand. But it was cool. They hand the metal out just 15 minutes after the race is over and it's all wrapped up and done.
CG: The emotional gravity, the weight of the responsibility of holding the medal. So Ben Ogden kind of slipped in there in between two Norwegians to win this medal. How did folks in Italy react to an American winning a medal? I know we all saw videos of Vice President JD Vance getting booed at the opening ceremony. So what was it like to see an American on the podium, and how did folks react?
NH: It's been interesting being in this world of global sports and executives and officials, and there are people from all over the world. And one of the themes of this Olympics has been Americans getting asked about how they feel representing the United States right now. A lot of the cross-country skiers I've heard from have spoken about how they feel like it's tough actually to be racing in a suit that literally has stars and stripes all over it, while these ICE raids and shootings are playing out in Minnesota. The president called this freestyle skier a loser after he expressed ambivalence about representing America.
What's interesting about this is, to a person, this guy, Ben Ogden, everyone on the international cross-country ski circuit says he is the nicest guy you'll ever meet. So I actually wrote about this after the race, how it's kind of this interesting split screen of Europeans who think America stinks right now, but then at the same time, you've got this guy who's racing in stars and stripes and actually was really celebrated by all the people who are competing against him. I interviewed a longtime sports writer from a Swedish tabloid about this phenomenon. He said Ben Ogden is the kind of president he thinks America should have. He also said this:
Tomas Petersen: As far as I know, I haven't heard one single American skier back up Donald Trump's craziness. They seem like totally normal people, as we thought (the) U.S. would be forever, which is not the case right now. So now, I mean, it's the flag. When you see the flag now, then you think of America and Donald Trump.
NH: That was Tomas Petersen from the Swedish tabloid Express, and sorry for giggling a little bit, but I did find this point of view kind of funny.
CG: Yeah, international politics and a big international sporting event. All right, that was Nat Herz. He is in Italy, covering the Winter Olympics and focusing on cross-country skiing. Nat, thanks for being here.
NH: You're welcome, thanks for having me, Casey.
