MILAN — Entering the 2026 Winter Olympics, Team USA had only won four cross-country skiing medals in Olympic history. The Americans have nearly matched that in Milano Cortina alone after picking up another medal.
Team USA claimed silver in the men’s team sprint free on Wednesday. Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher posted a time of 18:30.35 for the U.S. cross-country skiing team’s third podium finish after Jessie Diggins claimed bronze in the women’s 10km and Ogden won bronze in the individual sprint.
In team sprint, each pairing is made up of two athletes who alternate laps. In the final round, teams start at the same time and complete six total laps (three per team member). Whoever crosses the finish line first wins.
Ogden and Schumacher finished 1.37 seconds off the top pace of Norway. Italy claimed the bronze medal.
Norwegian sensation Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won another gold medal with partner Einar Hedegart with a time of 18:28.98. Klaebo has won gold in every men’s cross-country event so far at the 2026 Winter Games, with one more event to go. Klaebo improves to 10 total gold medals and joins Michael Phelps (23) as the only Olympians, Summer or Winter, to reach double-digit gold medals.
This silver medal is the second of the 2026 Games for Ogden. He also captured silver in the men’s sprint classic, finishing with a time of 3:40.61, less than a second behind Norwegian star Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. Norway’s Oskar Opstad Vike finished with the bronze medal with a time of 3:46.55.
Ogden’s silver in the classic sprint ended a nearly 50-year Olympic medal drought for the American men. He became just the second American man to win an Olympic cross-country skiing medal and the first to make the podium since Bill Koch captured silver in 30km at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Olympics.
Now, Ogden and Schumacher have added another entry to the American history books.
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