The 2024 Stifel Loppet Cup was an international cross-country skiing competition held February 17–18 at Theodore Wirth Park in Minneapolis. As one of the fifteen events in the 2023–24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup season, it featured top-ranked skiers from the global racing circuit. The event was the first World Cup cross-country ski competition held in the United States since 2001.[1] More than 150 athletes from 21 countries competed in the races.[2] About 40,000 spectators attended the two-day, festival-like event that was headlined by the women’s races.[3][4]
The Loppet Foundation was given another host opportunity in the 2023–24 FIS Cross-Country World Cup season as part of a North American swing, with an event on the tour taking place the week prior in Canmore, Alberta, Canada.[9] Race organizers in Minneapolis, however, had to contend with one of the warmest and driest winters on local record, which threatened to cancel the event.[2][10][11] To mitigate the weather conditions, organizers created a 7-kilometre (4.3 mi) ski trail with a 0.6-metre (2.0 ft) base using snowmaking machines.[2] About 17.78 centimetres (7.00 in) of natural snow fell two days before the races.[12]
The event was broadcast by Eurosport in European countries and by NBC Sports in the United States.[13]
Over two days, men and women athletes competed in separate sprint and 10 kilometer races using skate skiing (or freestyle) technique. In the 1.5 kilometer sprint finals on February 17, 2024, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo of Norway was the top male finisher and Jonna Sundling of Sweden was the top female finisher.[14] In the 10 kilometer finals on February 18, 2024, Gus Schumacker of the United States was the top male finisher and Jonna Sundling of Sweden the top female finisher.[15][16]Harald Østberg Amundsen of Norway and Jessie Diggins of the United States earned points from their race finishes to help maintain their leads in the overall 2023–2024 season standings for male and female skiers, respectively.[17][16][18]
Jonna Sundling of Sweden dominated the final rounds of the women’s competition by winning both the sprint and 10 kilometer finals.[20][16]
Gus Schumacher, a 23-year old from Anchorage, Alaska, had a surprise victory in the men’s 10 kilometer final. He became the youngest American to win a World Cup cross-country skiing race, the first American man to win any World Cup race since Simi Hamilton in 2013,[21][15] and the first American man to win a World Cup distance race since Bill Koch in 1983.[22][23]
