American cross-country skiing reached a milestone on Wednesday when, for the first time, an American man and an American woman won World Cup races on the same day.
Gus Schumacher and Jessie Diggins delivered the historic double at stage three of the Tour de Ski in Toblach, Italy, both prevailing in a newly introduced 5km heat mass start free event that rewarded speed, pacing and collective tactics rather than head-to-head positioning.
Schumacher set the tone in the men’s race, skating aggressively from the outset in a format that split the field into staggered heats, with final placings determined by time. The 25-year-old crossed the line in 9:35.4 to secure only the second World Cup victory of his career, edging Austria’s Benjamin Moser by two-tenths of a second. Norway’s Lars Heggen finished a further four-tenths back in third.
The win lifted Schumacher to sixth overall in the Tour de Ski standings and capped a breakthrough performance in a discipline rarely contested on the World Cup circuit in recent years.
Later in the day, Diggins matched the achievement on the women’s side, adding another chapter in the final season of an already decorated career. The American claimed her 31st World Cup victory in a race that unfolded less as a traditional mass start than a test of shared tempo and efficiency, with athletes rotating the lead to sustain maximum speed.
Diggins finished well clear of Sweden’s Emma Ribom and Moa Ilar, who completed the podium, and extended her lead at the top of both the World Cup and Tour de Ski overall standings.
Beyond the results, the day carried symbolic weight for a US team that has steadily closed the gap on traditional European powers. Julia Kern finished 10th in the women’s race for her first top-10 result of the season, while Schumacher’s win underscored a growing American presence on the men’s side.
The Tour de Ski continues on Thursday with the 20km pursuit races, where athletes will start according to their accumulated time deficits, chasing overall points as the series moves into the new year.
