The wide world of sports seldom gets wider than this: Two skiers from Alaska climbed victory podiums in Italy and China on Friday.
In Italy, Sadie Bjornsen for the first time earned a World Cup podium spot in an individual race by placing third in the Tour de Ski's 5-kilometer freestyle race in Toblach, a small town near the Austrian border.
In China, Jack Novak grabbed third place in the China Tour de Ski's 5.7-kilometer freestyle race in Xiwuqi, a small city in Inner Mongolia.
Bjornsen was part of a historic day for the U.S. Ski Team, which for the first time in World Cup history placed two women on the podium for a distance race.
Jessie Diggins of Minnesota won the interval-start race by 13.6 seconds over Finland's Krista Parmakoski. Bjornsen was one second behind the Finn.
The only other time two American women made the podium in a World Cup race was in 2014, when Anchorage's Kikkan Randall was joined by Vermont's Sophie Caldwell in a sprint race.
It was a breakthrough result for Bjornsen, 27 and a member of the Alaska Pacific University Nordic program. She's been on a World Cup podium five times now, but the first four times were for relay or team sprint races.
"It feels so good to get my first individual podium," Bjornsen said by email, "but even more special to get that first one with a teammate on top. All the girls on this team are an inspiration to me. We are dreamers, but we are also believers. It's crazy how much confidence you can get from a teammate's success if you allow yourself to stand beside them."
Bjornsen was the 26th skier to leave the starting line — Diggins started 12th — but she told coaches ahead of time not to give her split times during the races. She decided she didn't want to know how she was doing compared to skiers who started ahead of her.
"I wanted to go out there today and see how strong I could be inside my head," she said. "I love this course, but pacing is important, and I wanted to do my own thing. When I crossed the line, I had no idea where I had finished, so it was a fun surprise… like Christmas!
"I had two things in mind today, 'stay strong Sadie' and 'what would Jessie Diggins do?' There is so much work on the second half of the race, and Jessie is just amazing at being strong on that section … so I was imagining her the whole second half in front of me, and it seemed to have worked."
Rosie Brennan, another APU skier, placed 23rd to collect World Cup points. Randall placed out of the points in 40th place and said she will skip the final two races of the Tour de Ski, a series of seven races in three countries in nine days.
Randall, 34 and a three-time World Cup sprint champion, is making a comeback after taking last season off to have a baby. She enjoyed her first post-baby result on Wednesday when she placed 10th in the Tour's 10K freestyle race in Germany.
"I decided yesterday that I would stop after today's stage and rest up for next weekend's sprints here in Toblach," Randall said by email. "It was actually a little harder decision to stop than anticipated since my overall result in the tour was going so well."
Randall said her focus this season is the World Championships next month in Finland and how her body rebounds from the birth of her son, Breck. Breck turns 1 in April and is spending his first winter traveling the World Cup circuit with Randall, her husband, Jeff Ellis, and various family members.
"It's definitely been a little more challenging to travel the tour with a baby along but now I can't imagine doing it any other way," she said. "We've tried to be respectful of the team and the rest (of) the other athletes, so we've been driving our own van and eating at a separate table. Breck has been a really good baby and after some sleep training over Christmas, he's sleeping through the night and taking naps during the day.
"… It requires traveling with a lot more stuff and I can't always follow the exact routine I'm used to but it's surprisingly manageable and so wonderful to have such an amazing new part to my life. The baby rooms provided by the organizers have also been really helpful. I'm excited to stay in Toblach for the next week and a half and just get to enjoy some down time with Breck and recover."
Diggins and Bjornsen will race the final two races of the Tour de Ski, and both are eyeing top-10 overall finishes. After Friday's race, Diggins is ranked fifth and Bjornsen nine after the first five races.
Two races remain in the six-race China Tour de Ski, where three APU skiers — Novak, Lauren Fritz and Skyler Kenna — are competing.
Novak, a 2011 South High graduate, is the lone American to make the podium so far. He earned his spot Friday during a sprint finish in the mass-start 5K — he was six-tenths of a second behind winner Samuel Rege Gianasso of France.
Kenna placed 24th in the men's race, and Fritz placed 16th in the women's race.