What do you do when you want to write about the winter-loving Minnesotans who managed to put on a World Cup Nordic ski race despite an epic thaw, but you know very little about the sport?
You find a neighbor who does. In this case, Chris Johnson, former cross country ski coach at Southwest High, aka Coach Pub. I would cover the vibe, and Coach Pub would cover the races.
Proudly sporting our Hill & Lake Press credentials, we made our way to the Wirth Park Chalet for the Friday press conference, featuring four members of the USA team including home state hero, Jessie Diggins.
While Coach Pub was paying attention to the skiers and positioning himself to ask good questions, I was sidling up to environmental hero and author (and Birkie skier) Bill McKibben, whom I’ve met at other climate events. I told him I was covering the races for the Hill & Lake Press. He’s a humble man, but he did mumble something about The New Yorker.
Being out of my league didn’t matter when I arrived on Saturday morning and saw the results of years of persistence and hard work by the Loppet Foundation and the 1,000 volunteers, many of them denizens of Hill & Lake-landia, who had worked on the Luminary Loppet just two weeks earlier.
The volunteers, wearing yellow and blue bibs (whether by chance or choice, the colors of Ukraine) were doing everything from spreading grit on slippery pathways to guiding traffic to sorting garbage, with others providing food and drink in the VIP tent, and still others stationed throughout the park, coordinating media or keeping the course pristine. The European team members and their fans said they’d never seen anything like our volunteer corps anywhere on the tour.
In front of the Trailhead there was a festive vibe, with a variety of food trucks and vendors selling ski garb and fan gear to a throng of exuberant people. Across the street the skiers’ tech trailers were secured behind fencing, their windows covered so competitors couldn’t see which waxes were being applied to the skis.
Once inside, spectators filled the bleachers near the start-and-finish line, while thousands more spread out over the course to shout encouragement to their favorite skiers. When the races got underway you could hear a roar coming from wherever Jessie Diggins was on the course, like a stadium “wave,” only coming from a grove of trees or the top of a hill.
Scattered throughout the park were kids, hundreds of them. Small ones tumbling down the sledding hill oblivious to the athletes gliding by on either side, babies burbling on blankets in the sunshine, ‘tweens with a swoosh of biodegradable glitter across their cheekbones, inspired by Jessie Diggins, who may be the Taylor Swift of Nordic skiing. Heck, everyone had glitter on their cheekbones, even geezers. Everyone was inspired.
And for once, no one was looking at their screens — except for the big one that showed the results — an upset win for Gus Schumacher of the USA Men’s team and a solid third for Jessie Diggins of the women’s team.
But Jessie and the Loppet Foundation and that massive corps of volunteers brought us all a much bigger win. They brought us the World Cup, and with it a reminder of who we can be in this city when we come together to make spectacular things happen.
