GRP Ski: Post-Olympics Update
by GRP skier (and 2026 Olympian) Jack Young
The Olympics may draw to a close in less than a week, but the ski season is far from over for the 6 current members of GRP Ski: Brian Bushey, Jack Christner, Keelan Durham, Joseph Lynch, John Schwinghamer, and me. In fact, for some of the team, the most important races of the year lie ahead of us as opposed to behind.
World Cup Period 4
John at U.S. Nationals (Phil Belena)
Brian racing to the win at the Craftsbury Marathon (Phil Belena)
The post-Olympics World Cups are generally a great opportunity for skiers who didn’t get a chance to race at the Olympics to make their mark on the world stage. I’m certainly approaching it this way, and I would assume John and Brian, who were recently selected to compete in Drammen and Oslo, Norway respectively, feel the same way.
John had an excellent qualifier in the classic sprint at U.S. Nationals where he placed 1st in the qualification round. Usually a qualifier win at Nationals will earn a sprinter a World Cup start in period 3, but this year, the slots were already filled due to strong performances by the US men in Period 1 and the Tour de Ski. However, the landscape changed ever so slightly when Kevin Bolger dropped out of the top 40 in the World Cup sprint rankings. This made room for John to start in the classic sprint in Drammen. John also qualified for the World Cup skate sprint in Lake Placid by way of leading the domestic sprint rankings found here.
Brian also had strong performances at Nationals that did not lead to World Cup starts in period 3. He had a stronger skate race than the classic race in Lake Placid in January which was unfortunate because there were no skate distance races in period 3. Fast forward to now, there is one World Cup skate distance race left to compete in on European soil: the Holmenkollen 50k. Brian was selected as an alternate for this race, and due to John Hagenbuch going home to race in NCAA competition, Brian will get the start. He will also start in two distance races on home soil in Lake Placid: 10k classic and 20k skate. Like John, Brian earned these domestic World Cup starts via the domestic distance rankings found here.
I have remained in the top 40 of the World Cup sprint rankings despite a sub-par Tour de Ski and period 3, so I automatically have starts in skate sprints in Falun, Lahti, and Lake PLacid and the classic sprint in Drammen.
Implications
I’ll start with myself since I can give a more personal account of what I’m looking for in my performance in period 4. I want a podium, badly. It stung to not be good enough to earn the Olympic start in the classic sprint, and I’m ready to attack the rest of this season and pursue another best result. However, looking for a podium this year is putting the cart before the horse in a way, for I have only ever made two World Cup semi-finals and one final. Except for a podium, my number one goal for this next period is to move through every quarter-final I ski. No quarter-final exits in Period 4 would be a dream come true. Additionally, two more top-12s would qualify me for the A-team of the U.S. Ski Team which would be an accomplishment in itself.
The GRP will have 3 or more skiers starting in a non-domestic World Cup for the first time since March of 2020 when Kai Miller, Caitlin Patterson, Ben Lustgarten, and Adam Martin all started the Holmenkollen - coincidently the same venue Brian will race at! John and I will be a few miles away in Drammen. GRP men’s skiing is in a really good place right now, and I’m really excited to have 3 of us toeing the line on the world’s biggest stage in a few weeks.
Domestic Racing
Keelan
Jack C.
Joe
With the American Birkebeiner having wrapped up this past weekend, the U.S. Supertour (the highest level of racing in the U.S.) begins a month-long hiatus until Supertour Finals in late March hosted right at home at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center! In the meantime, Jack Christner, Keelan Durham, and Joe Lynch will head up north to Mont St. Anne in Quebec to race at the Canadian National Championships. These championships will take place from March 11th-14th and will include a skate sprint, 30k skate mass start, and a 10k classic individual start. Sounds like a good lineup for the Sprigs.
Supertour Finals
With Supertour Finals being hosted at home in Craftsbury, the Sprigs will be looking to capitalize on their home course advantage. I know almost all of the boys, myself included, are really excited for the classic sprint, but the 40k skate mass start and 4x5k mixed relay will also be good events. Additionally, since Supertour Finals are so late in the season, we will likely be joined by our biathlon comrades to fill out the relay teams. GRP Snow united as it should be. We’re all excited to finish out the season strong at home, but in the meantime, all of GRP Ski has some great racing opportunities coming up soon.