‘My needles are waiting’: Ben Ogden credits knitting habit after cross-country silver

Ben Ogden delivered the most important result in American men’s cross-country skiing in decades on Tuesday afternoon. He won Olympic silver in the men’s sprint classic at the Milano Cortina Games, ending a 50-year medal drought. And then he attributed the relaxation he experiences while knitting.

The moustachioed 25-year-old finished in 3 minutes and 40.61 seconds after powering through the final with his trademark classic 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 to the podium from 20th place in qualifying.

“It’s an incredible dream come true,” Ogden said. “Everyone who races dreams of being on an Olympic podium. Last year I really dared to set my expectations for an Olympic medal. During training, I thought every day about how I could improve and be the best version of myself on this course.”

Ogden became the second American man to win an Olympic cross-country skiing medal and the first since Bill Koch, also a Vermonter, who earned silver in the 30 km at the 1976 Olympic Games in Innsbruck.

Skiing was embedded in Ogden’s life long before it became a career. His father, John, a former skier from Middlebury who later coached a local club in the Bill Koch Youth Ski League network in Vermont, helped build a routine around snow and trails for his children. Winters meant runs in the fields near the family home and daily time on skis, an upbringing that Ogden has described simply as normal for his family.

Coaches later said that environment — competitive but not obsessed with results — helped shape Ogden’s racing style.

Ogden, a three-time NCAA champion at the University of Vermont, methodically built his medal streak throughout the day. He qualified second in the morning round and went on to win his quarter-final in 3:26.10 before emerging from the semi-final as a lucky loser, finishing just 0.60 seconds behind Klæbo in a photo finish chase for automatic qualification.

“It’s a dream,” Ogden said of racing with Klæbo, who moved one step closer to passing fellow countrymen Marit Bjoergen and Bjorn Dæhlie’s record of eight cross-county gold. “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 that doesn’t mean one of us can’t give him his money’s worth. Today I did my best, he was better. Maybe next time.”

Outside of racing, Ogden has also become known among teammates for his knitting habit he said helps him relax during the long World Cup and championship program. He said last week that his latest project is a pair of mittens depicting Joan of Arc.

“It’s a great way to relax,” he said Tuesday. “It won’t be easy to come down tonight and try to fall asleep. After a day like today, my knitting needles are probably waiting for me.”

Ogden isn’t the only Olympian to take up knitting. Several American teammates, including Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern talked about making sweaters and hats. During the 2021 Tokyo Games, Team GB diver Tom Daley went viral for knitting between events. Three years later, he headlined an exhibition of his woven creations at an art museum in Tokyo.

His medal is the first by an American man in an individual Olympic cross-country sprint event and represents a major step forward for a U.S. men’s program that had never before finished higher than 19th in a classic Olympic sprint.

The breakthrough comes amid steady growth in American cross-country skiing, long driven by Diggins’ success but increasingly boosted by a younger core of men, including Ogden and fellow rising contender Gus Schumacher. Both 24, the pair have helped shift expectations for the American men from simply racing in the pack to aiming for podium finishes – a change Ogden has attributed to team culture. “We all grew up racing,” he said last year. “Now it’s about pushing each other to be better. We want to take this team to the next level.”

Tuesday’s race capped off a strong day for the Americans, even as Sweden dominated the women’s sprint. Linn Svahn led a Swedish victory for Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist, including King Carl XVI Gustaf.

All four American women – Diggins, Kern, Sammy Smith and Lauren Jortberg – advanced from qualifying to the quarterfinals. Diggins later said she suffered bruised ribs during the skiathlon, limiting her ability to accelerate after a strong start in her heat. Kern advanced to the finals via the lucky-loser rule and finished sixth, matching the best Olympic result by an American in the event.

But in the end, the day belonged to Ogden, who was roared on by dozens of people who had made the long journey to Val di Fiemme from his hometown of Landgrove (pop. 177).

“There are all kinds of Vermonters here,” Ogden said. “My mom is here. There are some people from my hometown here. If I wasn’t doing this, I would be there celebrating with them. I’m just excited that I was able to put on a good show with so many Vermonters here and watching at 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 important Olympic cross-country results in decades.