Two members of the Bridger Ski Foundation (BSF) Nordic Pro Team earned starts for their first-ever FIS World Cup cross country ski races. Logan Diekmann and Lauren Jortberg both recorded excellent World Cup debuts in Lahti, Finland, last weekend.
BSF Pro Coach Andy Newell, a four-time Olympian and longtime World Cup competitor, accompanied Diekmann and Jortberg. “Both Lauren Jortberg and Logan Diekmann showed they can compete with the best in the world in the Lahti World Cup,” said Newell. Lauren Jortberg finished 45th, just five seconds out of the points, and Logan Diekmann had a standout performance finishing 34th, just nine seconds off the winner Lucas Chanavat of France.
Logan grew up in Bozeman, learning to ski with BSF's introductory Nordic and Alpine ski programs, and rose up through the program to eventually capture a Junior National Championship. After a successful collegiate career with the University of Utah, Logan returned to Bozeman and joined the newly minted BSF Pro Team in the summer of 2020. This January, he earned his first U.S. Nationals podium with a second place in the freestyle sprint.
Lauren grew up in Boulder, Colorado, and skied for Dartmouth College before heading west to Bozeman to join the BSF Pro Team in 2020. With two Super Tour podiums and numerous Top 10 finishes this season, Lauren has rocketed to the top tier of Nordic racers this season.
Logan says, “It has been a dream of mine to start a World Cup race since I was a kid. Honestly, more so than the Olympics. People would always ask me if I wanted to go to the Olympics someday, and of course I did, but so many things go wrong at the Olympics and it's so challenging to have the shape and good fortune come together. I simply wanted to race on the world stage against the best.”
Logan went on to say, “Getting to race this past weekend forced a swath of emotions on me. Going into it, I knew I had the ability to qualify. Seeing people like Kevin Bolger, Luke Jager, Ben Ogden, Logan Hanneman, and JC Schoonmaker qualify earlier this season made it apparent that on a good day, I could also qualify for heats on the World Cup circuit. I think that's why the nerves were so bad this past weekend. I knew that I had what it took and I was confident that I could make it happen. Of course, times were tight, and I missed qualifying [for heats] by 0.6 seconds. It was encouraging to have people around me and back home telling me that it was an admirable result for a World Cup debut. However, I know I can do better and I hope that I will have the chance in the future to prove that.”
In an interview with FasterSkier, U.S. Ski Team Coach Matt Whitcomb commented on Diekmann’s debut, “He was disappointed in some ways because he was so close to qualifying, but in his first World Cup start to show up and be six-tenths out of qualifying … very promising and I think it sends the message back home that we’re ready. Had he put together just the perfect qualifier, he would have qualified. That was really exciting to see.”
Diekmann came into the trip expecting one World Cup start, in the Lahti sprint. However, he received another start to race the 15km classic race in Lahti and was also invited to start the Drammen city sprint this Thursday. “So, I will in fact have another crack at it,” he says. “This time in a rather flat classic sprint in downtown Drammen, Norway. It will be a very interesting race and I am excited to give it another go.”
You can watch World Cup action on Peacock TV under their "Snow Sports" section.
