In skiing, where ‘champions pull up champions,’ U.S. women ahead of the men

Not to be too cheeky, but it’s getting a little awkward for the American men who make their living on Alpine and Nordic skis.

At the recently completed Alpine world championships, the American women captured four medals, two of them gold. The men left Saalbach, Austria, empty-handed.

Now cross-country skiing’s world championships are underway in Trondheim, Norway. While the women, led by Olympic and world champion Jessie Diggins, seem like a good bet to collect some hardware, the men haven’t landed on the podium at an Olympics or world championships since Bill Koch won the bronze medal in the 30-kilometer race at worlds in 1982.

And as much as the U.S. Nordic skiers compete and travel as a single team, the boys know the Koch data point better than anyone, and they don’t really want to hear about it for too much longer.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a rivalry, but as a men’s team, we aspire to do as well as the women do,” Ben Ogden, arguably the American man with the best shot at a world championship podium, said during a conference call with reporters from Norway this week. “So either they got to do worse or we have to do better.”

At this point, Ogden’s teammate and close friend, Gus Schumacher, chimed in. “We have to do better.”