Sports

Caldwell seizes World Cup win; Sadie Bjornsen 13th in overall standings

Sadie Bjornsen of Anchorage didn't advance to the heats in the Tour de Ski's classic sprint in Germany on Tuesday, but her Olympic teammate Sophie Caldwell delivered a historic victory.

Caldwell became the third American woman to win a World Cup nordic race, conquering in the final after qualifying third, winning her quarterfinal heat and finishing second in her semifinal.

Caldwell, 25, of Peru, Vermont, joins Anchorage's Kikkan Randall and former Alaska Methodist University skier Alison Owen-Spencer as the only American women to win a World Cup race. Randall, 33, a four-time Olympian and three-time World Cup overall sprint champion who has won more than a dozen World Cup races, is pregnant and taking the season off from competition. Owen-Spencer won a 1977 race during the early days of women's World Cup competition.

Caldwell's previous podium finish on the World Cup tour was third place in a freestyle sprint in 2014. Tuesday, she became the first American woman to win a World Cup classic race. Randall's specialty is freestyle, or skate skiing.

"Wow. Today was an incredible day. I definitely did not expect this when I woke up this morning,'' Caldwell said in a release from the U.S. Ski Team. "I kept expecting a Norwegian or Swede to come flying by me in the finishing lanes, but I didn't see anyone until the end and then threw in the best lunge I could.''

Caldwell's win in Oberstdorf, Germany, came in the fourth stage of the eight-stage Tour de Ski, which began last week in Switzerland and includes another stage in Germany on Wednesday before moving to Italy for the final three stages.

Bjornsen, who competes for the APU Nordic Ski Center, finished 44th in Tuesday's qualifying and didn't advance to the heats. She sits 13th in the overall Tour de Ski standings.

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APU's Rosie Brennan finished 35th and sits 42nd overall in the Tour de Ski standings. The top American in the Tour de Ski standings is Olympian Jesse Diggins, who is in 10th place after crashing in Tuesday's quarterfinals. Caldwell sits 14th.

Olympian Erik Bjornsen of APU, Sadie's brother, finished 38th in the men's sprint and sits 32nd overall in the Tour de Ski standings.

Meanwhile, two other APU skiers, Holly Brooks and Lauren Fritz, are competing in the five-stage Tour de China.

On Monday, Brooks, a two-time Olympian, finished sixth in the 50-kilometer classic Vasaloppet, clocking 2 hours, 43 minutes, 33.9 seconds. Fritz finished 11th in 2:50.31.

Many other Alaskans are competing this week at the U.S. Cross Country Championships in Houghton, Michigan, where competition continues Thursday.

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