Ben Ogden delivered the most significant result in US men’s cross-country skiing in decades on Tuesday afternoon, winning Olympic silver in the men’s sprint classic at the Milano Cortina Games to end a 50-year medal drought. And afterwards he credited the relaxation he finds in knitting.
The mustachioed 25-year-old finished in 3min 40.61sec after surging through the final with his trademark classical technique, less than a second behind Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who secured the seventh Olympic gold medal of his career in 3:39.74. Klæbo’s teammate Oskar Opstad Vike took bronze after climbing from 20th in qualifying to the podium.
“It’s an unbelievable dream come true,” Ogden said. “Everybody who races dreams of being on an Olympic podium. Last year I really dared to set my expectations on an Olympic medal. Every day in training I thought about how I could get better and be the best version of myself on this course.”
Ogden became the second US man to win an Olympic cross-country skiing medal and the first since Bill Koch, also a Vermonter, who earned silver in the 30km at the 1976 Innsbruck Olympics.
Skiing was embedded in Ogden’s life long before it became a career. His father, John, a former Middlebury skier who later coached a local club in Vermont’s Bill Koch Youth Ski League network, helped build a routine around snow and trails for his children. Winters meant loops groomed into fields near the family home and daily time on skis, an upbringing Ogden has described simply as normal for his family.
Coaches later credited that environment – competitive but not results-obsessed – with helping shape Ogden’s racing style.
A three-time NCAA champion at the University of Vermont, Ogden built his medal run methodically through the day. He qualified second fastest in the morning round, then won his quarter-final in 3:26.10 before advancing from the semi-final as a lucky loser – finishing just 0.60sec behind Klæbo in a photo-finish chase for automatic qualification.
“It’s a dream,” Ogden said of racing Klæbo, who moved one step closer to passing compatriots Marit Bjoergen’s and Bjorn Dæhlie’s record of eight cross-county golds. “When you know you have to face Johannes in every race, you have to bring the best version of yourself. He wins a lot of races, but it doesn’t mean one of us can’t give him a run for his money. Today I did my best – he was better. Maybe next time.”
Away from racing, Ogden has also become known among teammates for his knitting habit, which he has said helps him decompress during the long World Cup and championship schedule. He said last week his latest project is a pair of mittens that feature Joan of Arc.
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“It’s a great way to relax,” he said on Tuesday. “It won’t be easy to come down and try to fall asleep tonight. After a day like today, my knitting needles are probably waiting for me.”
Ogden is not the only Olympian to take up knitting. Several US teammates, including Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern, have spoken of making sweaters and hats. At the Tokyo Games in 2021, Team GB diver Tom Daley went viral for knitting between events. Three years later, he headlined an exhibition of his woven creations at a Tokyo art museum.
His medal is the first by an American man in any individual Olympic cross-country sprint event and represents a major step forward for a US men’s program that had never previously finished higher than 19th in an Olympic classical sprint.
The breakthrough comes amid steady growth across American cross-country skiing, long driven by the success of Diggins but increasingly reinforced by a younger men’s core that includes Ogden and fellow rising contender Gus Schumacher. Both 24, the pair have helped shift expectations for the US men from simply racing in the pack to targeting podiums – a change Ogden has credited to team culture. “We all grew up racing each other,” he said last year. “Now it’s about pushing each other to get better. We want to take this team to the next level.”
Tuesday’s race capped a strong day overall for the Americans, even as Sweden dominated the women’s sprint. Linn Svahn led a Swedish sweep ahead of Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist, with King Carl XVI Gustaf among those in attendance.
All four American women – Diggins, Kern, Sammy Smith and Lauren Jortberg – advanced from qualifying into the quarter-finals. Diggins later said she was managing bruised ribs suffered in the skiathlon, limiting her ability to accelerate after a strong start in her heat. Kern advanced to the final via the lucky-loser rule and finished sixth, matching the best Olympic result by an American in the event.
But the day ultimately belonged to Ogden, roared on by dozens who had made the long journey to Val di Fiemme from his home town of Landgrove (population: 177).
“There’s all kinds of people here from Vermont,” Ogden said. “My mom is here. A bunch of people from my home town are here. If I wasn’t doing this I’d be over there celebrating with them. I’m just excited I was able to put on a good show with so many Vermonters here and watching back home.”
Ogden is expected to compete in additional distance events later in the Games as the United States looks to build on one of its most significant Olympic cross-country results in decades.
