USA Women's Relay Team Fifth; Ties Best-Ever Olympic Team Relay Result
In a team relay marked by upsets, broken skis, crashes, celebration and heartbreak, the four women representing Team USA in the 4x7.5k relay crossed the finish line in fifth place, tying the best Olympic relay finish in program history. The 2026 relay team consisted of Jessie Diggins, Rosie Brennan, Julia Kern and Novie McCabe.
It was a wet day at the Tesero cross-country venue, with weather conditions far from ideal for skiing. Rain, warm temperatures and cloud cover left the course in rough shape, yet the race went on.
"It was surfing snow," said Kern after the race. "You just gotta ride the slush."
But these conditions are something the athletes are used to. "The whole last month has been like this, including last year at Trondheim World Champs. We are unfortunately seeing more and more of these conditions, but also, snow can be different each day. We all stayed calm and collected, and I think that was the key to navigating it well."
Kern led off for the U.S., skiing the classic leg. Knowing the course would break down quickly, the task was simply to stay composed. Over two laps, Kern remained in the lead pack, maintaining contact with the leaders (Sweden at the time) before chaos unfolded.
On the second lap, Kern tagged cleanly to Brennan, but turmoil struck the front of the race. Ebba Andersson of Sweden received a clean tag from teammate Linn Svahn and crashed minutes into her leg. She recovered, but shortly after, on a downhill, her ski caught and she tumbled forward, completing a front flip, breaking the binding clean off. Andersson skied on one ski downhill until receiving a replacement, and although no other teams were involved, Sweden dropped handidly from the lead. At that time, Norway took off and never looked back.
As often happens in relays, no one gave up. Brennan skied a strong leg and handed off to McCabe in fifth place. McCabe’s first lap was steady on firmer snow, but conditions deteriorated on her second lap. Despite that, she surged, gaining over 40 seconds before tagging Diggins for the anchor leg.
"Today was tough, but I don't think I had as bad as conditions as Jessie did. I noticed on my second lap around, the corners were way sketchier, so for me, the conditions were pretty decent and I was happy with how I skied it. I gave it my all and I tried my best."
Diggins dug deep, battling for every second and giving the team a chance at the elusive Olympic relay podium.
The U.S. has never won a medal in a team relay at a major championship. Today, they were within reach. Finishing 1:52.2 behind the winners, the U.S. women tied their best Olympic result, finishing fifth. Sweden rebounded to take second, Norway won gold, and Finland finished third. Aside from the results, this was Diggins' fourth Olympic relay team and 12th major-championship relay team.
"I went out hard and tried to be calm and deliberate and especially careful on the downhills because I knew that a really good crash was the one way to make sure that things aren't possible," said Diggins. "But I was just thinking, 'you never know' and trying to go out really hard and see what I could do. It wasn't quite enough, but at the same time, you just have to go out believing and give the best chance for your team and every single one of these girls went and skied their heart out, so I wanted to go and do the same thing."
McCabe, who made up an incredible 45-seconds on her skate lap, dug deep today. "Today was tough, but I don't think I had as bad as conditions as Jessie did. I noticed on my second lap around, the corners were way sketchier, so for me, the conditions were pretty decent and I was happy with how I skied it. I gave it my all and I tried my best."
"It was wet, sloppy and a little chaotic," said Brennan. "The downhills were scary, deep snow. But today, my focus was on skiing my best 7.5k possible. Ideally, latch onto some people and see what I had in me and I feel like I did an OK job!"
Though just off the podium, the performance featured strong skiing, fast skis and smart tactics. Now, the men get their chance tomorrow.
RESULTS
Women
