Sophie Caldwell competes in the women's 10-kilometer cross-country skiing at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships on Feb. 26, 2019 in Seefeld, Austria.
It’s already been a big season for the U.S. women’s cross-country skiing team, and now Sophie Caldwell has joined Sadie Maubet Bjornsen and Jessie Diggins on the list of individual podium finishers in just the first three world cup tour stops.
Caldwell finished third in a photo finish at the much-anticipated first freestyle sprint of the season in Davos, Switzerland, on Saturday after winning her semifinal to advance to the final. Her time of 2 minutes, 35.64 seconds in the semifinal seeded her first going into the final, where she came in just .55 behind winner Linn Svahn of Sweden. Svahn took the victory in 2:38.54, followed by Caldwell and Norway’s Maiken Caspersen Falla in 2:39.09. Falla won the photo finish.
The two-time U.S. Olympian has enjoyed a number of podium finishes in the freestyle sprint in recent years. This was her eighth freestyle sprint top-three finish since 2014, with seven coming since 2017.
Caldwell was also part of the crew that finished second in the team relay last weekend in Lillehammer, Norway, making this Caldwell’s second world cup podium of the season.
On the men’s side, Caldwell’s husband Simi Hamilton, who is coming off a nagging hamstring injury, advanced to the final and finished sixth.
Racing will continue on Sunday with the 10-kilometer freestyle for the women and 15K freestyle for the men before moving to Planica, Slovenia, for the first team sprint of the season next weekend.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic and Paralympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
