The top of the FIS women’s cross country skiing standings took on a decidedly Big Green hue over the weekend when Dartmouth College graduate Rosie Brennan won the first two races of her World Cup Nordic career.
The 2011 graduate and former Big Green competitor claimed back-to-back races in Davos, Switzerland, to leap to the top spot in the women’s standings. Brennan took both the qualifying and knockouts in Saturday’s freestyle sprints, then backed that up by winning Sunday’s 10-kilometer freestyle.
The victories catapulted Brennan to first place in the overall standings with 377 points through six events.
“That is quite honestly something I’m not sure I’ve ever even dreamed of,” Brennan said in a U.S. Skiing news release about taking the overall World Cup lead. “Obviously, we have only had a few races, but it’s something I’m proud of nonetheless, and while I’m not sure I expect to keep them all the whole season, I hope to do them proud while I have them and put up as good a fight as I can!”
Brennan was particularly surprised by Saturday’s result, as she doesn’t consider herself a sprint specialist.
Her 17th-place finish last winter was her best final overall standing in six years of FIS racing.
Brennan won the sprint qualifying race in 2 minutes, 40.3 seconds. She moved on with top-three results in the quarterfinals and semifinals, ultimately taking the day with a time of 2:37.36 in the six-woman finals.
Sunday’s win was more conventional. Brennan set a good early pace and led at all three checkpoints before finishing in 24:49.8 for a 34-second victory over Russia’s Yulia Stupak.
Brennan wasn’t the only former Big Green skier enjoying success in Switzerland. Sophie Caldwell Hamilton, a teammate of Brennan’s at Dartmouth, was fifth in Sunday’s sprint final.
Katharine Ogden, a three-time NCAA national champion at Dartmouth before she committed to World Cup skiing last winter, earned her first World Cup points of the season with a 22nd-place result in Sunday’s 10K free.
The Davos races lacked competitors from Norway, Sweden and Finland, which didn’t send athletes because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brennan will get another chance to add to her World Cup lead this weekend with individual and team sprints scheduled for Dresden, Germany.