TESERO, Italy — Ben Ogden broke the United States men’s 50-year cross-country skiing Olympic drought, winning the Americans’ second-ever medal with silver in Tuesday’s sprint, behind a dominant gold medal performance from Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, his second straight of the games. Norway’s Oskar Opstad Vike took bronze.
The U.S. men hadn’t medaled in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch did it for the first time at the 1976 Olympics. Koch also won silver, in the 30-kilometer race that year in Innsbruck, Austria.
Ogden, 25, finished the qualification second behind only Klæbo and left his competitors behind in the quarterfinal, making his move on the final climb and leaving no question from there, throwing down the fastest time across heats.
He was just edged out in the semifinal, but after taking third in his heat, he made the final as a lucky loser. In the final, he finished just under a second behind Klæbo, the Norwegian great who won his second gold medal in two events as he pursues a sweep of the entire program.
Ogden, a 6-foot-4, mustachioed Vermonter, was the fastest skier under 23 during the 2022-23 season, winning the coveted green bib that comes with the youth honor, and reached his first World Cup podium in December 2023 in a sprint race during the prestigious Tour de Ski race. The next season, he got his second career podium, a 10km race in France. He landed on his third podium in a team event last month in Switzerland.
All of those were third-place finishes. On Tuesday, he did one better on the biggest stage yet.
American men’s cross-country — led by Ogden and Olympic teammate Gus Schumacher — has been on the rise in recent years. In an interview with The Athletic’s Matt Futterman in January 2025, they both spoke about the improvement and going from also-ran to contender.
“We want to be someone that people are looking out for,” Ogden said then. “We do that for other people. Right now that’s becoming us.”
This is breaking news story. More to come.
