BY KAREN BOSSICK

Sydney Palmer-Leger has become the latest Sun Valley skier to win the American Birkebeiner.

Palmer-Leger, an alum of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team, won the 50-kilometer  skate ski race from Cable to Hayward, Wis., on Saturday, Feb. 22. Gerard Agnellet of France, who won the 2022 American Birkebeiner, won the men’s 50K freestyle race.

“It’s a BIG deal to win the Birkebeiner,” said Sun Valley Olympian Betsy Youngman, who herself won the race in 1989.

Five-time American Birkebeiner Champion Caitlin Gregg poses under the American Birkebeiner banner a couple years ago with American Birkebeiner champion Betsy Youngman.

It was the 51st running of the American Birkebeiner, considered North America’s premier cross-country ski race. Modeled after the Norwegian Birkebeiner, which commemorates how soldiers skied away across the mountains of Norway to save the infant king from enemies, it follows the longest cross-country ski trail in North America, ending on Main Street in Hayward, Wis.

Nearly 12,000 skiers participated in Birkie Week events this year, the culmination of the premier races coming in front of 30,000 cheering fans.

Palmer-Leger who now races for the University of Utah, completed the event in two hours, 25 minutes and six seconds. Australia’s Jessica Yeaton finished second—1.6 seconds back. Lauren Jortberg, who grew up in Boulder, Colo., but now races for Dartmouth College, finished third—3.0 seconds behind.

Sun Valley’s Annika Landis was oh-so-close behind with a time of 2:25.22.

Muffy Ritz and EJ Harpham sit next to photos commemorating their Birkebeiner wins in the American Birkebeiner Hall of Fame.

Agnellet completed the race in two hours, three minutes and one second. Steamboat Springs, Colo., skier David Norris, who won last year’s Birkebeiner, finished second—1:30:6 behind. Norris won the 2022 Boulder Mountain Tour. Michael Earnhart of Eagle River, Alaska, took third, 2:10.2 back.

Agnellet nearly didn’t compete as the snow in Wisconsin, like last year, was marginal. But he made the trip across the pond when he saw that Hayward had received just enough snow for the race to be a go

Palmer-Leger grew up in a cross-country skiing family and has been skiing since she could walk. This was her first time at the Birkebeiner. The 23-year-old had just returned to the United States from Falun, Sweden, where she finished 26th in the FIS Cross Country World Cup Women’s 20K Mass Start, which American Jessie Diggins won.

She told a Jeffrey McClure of northernnewsnow.com that she was blown away by the thousands of spectators along the course waving cowbells amidst the aroma of beer and brats.

Betsy Youngman said the Classic Race course has been widened and set with four classic tracks in recent years.

“You can’t really hear your own thoughts ‘cause there’s so many people cheering and it’s amazing,” she said. “This is kinda bigger than some of the World Cups that I’ve been in spectator-wise and it’s just fun.”

Several Sun Valley skiers have won the American Birkebeiner. Vamps founder Muffy Ritz has skied the American Birkebeiner 18 times, winning it twice, and she’s skied the Norwegian Birkebeiner five times, coming in fourth once. EJ Harpham won the American Birkebeiner in 1987.

Two-time Olympian Betsy Youngman won it 36 years ago in 1989, posting a time of 3 hours and 32 minutes for what was then a 55K race. She finished first in her 60-to-64-year-old class when she returned two years ago.

Sun Valley ‘s Johnny Hagenbuch won the skate ski race in 2021, then finished second in the classic race the next day. Katie Feldman finished fourth that year. And Peter Holmes took the 2019 Classic Edition while Feldman won third that year.

The course is a lot of like the winding, hilly Rip n’ Tear at Galena Lodge, said Anne Jeffery, who competed in the grueling race several years ago. It crosses a flat lake near the end then turns up a hill to town crossing an International Bridge built every year over the highway and then up another hill through town to the finish.

Several Wood River Valley residents competed in it this year. Among them: Ketchum skiers Zack Beatty, who competed the course in 2:48.05.78; Alice Oline (3:46.03) and Whitney Ganz (4:32.56). Hailey skiers included Scott Schoen (2:15:30), Annika Landis (2:25:22), Laura Theis (3:26:34), Victoria Kent (3:28:33), Gina Greenberg (4:02.35) and Mike Price (4:22:26). Sun Valley skier Eric Huus posted a time of 3:37:43.

Those competing in the 53K Birkie Classic were Ketchum skiers Alli Beatty (4:11:50), Del Pletcher, who at 81 finished in 4:46:52, and Cindy Dondero (6:27:54). Hailey residents were Tizz Strachan (4:52.22) and Hank Dart (5:16:55).

Lily Hubanks of Madison Wis., won that race for the women in 3:05:56. Fabian Stocek of Czech Republic won the Men’s Classic in 2:35:12.