Park City’s Rosie Brennan finishes eighth in World Cup 10K Classic

Park City's 2-time cross country Olympian Rosie Brennan skid on to the podium in Finland on Saturday. Pictured here in 2021. Photo: Tom Horrocks/U.S. Ski & Snowboard.

LAHTI, Finland — Salt Lake City native and Park City alumni Rosie Brennan led four Davis Cross Country Ski Team Athletes into the points, finishing eighth at the FIS Cross Country World Cup 10K classic on Sunday.

With an individual time of 25:31.2, Brennan was just 1:02.8 back from Norway’s first place finisher, Therese Johaug, who recorded a final time of 24:28.4. Behind Johaug, Russia’s Natalia Nepryaeva finished second and Finland’s Krista Parmakowski was third. Notably, fellow Americans Jessie Diggins finished 20th while Julia Kern came in 28th and Hailey Swirbul was 29th.

Despite finishing off the podium, Brennan was very pleased with her top-10 result as she had just competed in six-events in Beijing in addition to several days of travel from the Olympics to Finland.

“I am really happy with today,” Brennan said. “I have always struggled post championships, not so much in my body but in my mind. It’s really difficult to live on the road and be sharp and push so hard all the time. It often feels like there is never a chance to let down the way someone who goes home every week might experience. I am always trying to figure this out and work towards finding ways to let down and then pull the fight back up for the weekend. It’s all part of the game and it’s a good challenge to try to figure everything out.”

Sunday’s result was also much improved from Saturday’s, after Brennan missed an opportunity to advance to the freestyle sprint semifinals by four-hundredths of a second.

“I was definitely frustrated after yesterday and am really happy I was able to let it go and find myself out there today,” she said. “We have really great weather this weekend and a big crowd so that was a huge bonus. It was a joy to not be skiing in an arctic tornado!”

The FIS World Cup will now transition to Drammen, Norway, for a freestyle sprint on Thursday, March 3.