Given Team USA’s history, Ben Ogden entered the cross-country sprint Tuesday with extremely low expectations. Cross-country skiing hasn’t been Team USA’s best event, with Bill Koch being the only male to medal in the sport at the Olympics for the U.S.
But Koch got some company Tuesday, as Ogden pulled off a silver-medal finish in the cross-country sprint. Ogden finished the event with a time of 3:40.61. He finished just behind Norwegian legend Johannes Hosflot Klaebo, who won his second gold medal at the Milan Cortina Olympics and his seventh Olympic gold medal overall. Klaebo posted a winning time of 3:39.74 in the event.
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While Ogden didn’t take home the gold, it was a historic medal for the 25-year-old. With the performance, Ogden became just the second U.S. male to earn a medal in cross country. It was Team USA’s first medal by a male cross-country skier since 1976.
Cross-country skiing has a lengthy history at the Winter Olympics, and Team USA hasn’t made a big impact in the sport. Since cross-country skiing was introduced at the Olympics in 1924, Team USA had combined to medal just four times prior to Tuesday. Team USA’s women had accounted for three of those medals, with Koch being the only male U.S. athlete to medal in the sport.
Prior to Ogden’s silver, here is the brief history of Team USA’s cross-country performance at the Olympics:
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Bill Koch, silver medal, 1976 men’s 30k
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Jesse Diggins and Kikkan Randall, gold medal, 2018 team sprint
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Jesse Diggins, silver medal, 2022 women’s 20 and 30 km
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Jesse Diggins, bronze medal, 2022 women’s individual sprint
While the U.S. has struggled in the sport, it appears the country’s luck is starting to turn. Ogden’s win gives Team USA four cross-country medals since the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang. After a century of struggles, the Americans are starting to find their footing in the sport.
Given that, perhaps Ogden’s silver medal Tuesday should have been expected. Ogden turned in a modest 12th-place finish in the freestyle sprint at the 2022 Olympics. While he didn’t come close to the podium, that performance did mark the best sprint finish by a U.S. man in the Olympics at that point.
Ogden obviously smashed that performance Tuesday. In doing so, he not only won his first Olympic medal, but accomplished something Team USA hasn’t experienced in 50 years.
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