With eyes on Olympics, Anchorage's Schumacher leads Americans into pivotal ski season

Nov. 27—Historically, Gus Schumacher has been at his best in February.

In February 2024, the Anchorage cross country skier became the first American to win a World Cup distance race in four decades.

As Schumacher embarks on the 2025-26 World Cup season, the 25-year-old hopes to once again build to a strong performance pinnacle in February — this time, for the 2026 Winter Olympics.

"I'm definitely building toward it," he said. "I feel like I've figured out a pretty good method for myself to be strong that time of year. I've had a lot of my best races in the past few years in February. I feel like I have a plan that's been working and that'll keep going, and the ultimate goal is just being healthy and in a good place. I think things will work out."

Schumacher leads a contingent of American skiers into action this winter who have come up together and have developed into contenders on the world stage in recent years.

JC Schoonmaker, 25, is a former UAA skier who trains with APU and has continued to improve his World Cup results. Luke Jager, 25, returns to compete after a strong performance in last year's National Championships. At 24, Zanden McMullen is the youngest of the group but had a career-best seventh-place finish last year in Ruka, Finland, the first stop on the World Cup tour.

The recent success of the American men has changed how they're perceived as they grew from an underdog role into contenders.

"We're definitely not new names anymore. People know us and respect us," Schumacher said. "I guess we're still a little on the young side and not super predictable always. But definitely it's not like, a shock when we do well."

Schumacher sets small goals each week, many that are not skiing-related. But when it comes to competition, he prefers to focus on training and let the results follow.

"I realize my aspirations, you know, and kind of think about them as, a little bit as goals," he said. "But when I've put a lot of stock into goals before and make kind of a reward system for it, I feel like it puts a pressure on it that I don't need."

Like many young skiers in Alaska, the Winter Olympics is something that Schumacher has followed since his grade-school years.

"The first Olympics I really watched was 2010 Vancouver (Games)," Schumacher said. "That was a pretty cool one for me. I was new to skiing and it was fun to watch that and learn about Kikkan Randall and pretend I was skiing in the Olympics during practice every day."

Fairbanks skier Kendall Kramer has been training with APU for a handful of summers, but this has marked her first full year doing so.

"The group makes it really easy," she said. "The sheer size of it makes you really motivated to come every day, makes it so every session is quality, because there's always somebody who's going to be around you (training at a high level)."

Kramer graduated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks in the spring and is able to compete on the World Cup circuit from the onset mainly because she doesn't have dueling obligations with college skiing and school.

"My November and December opened up," she said. "I've never gone to period 1 of the World Cup."

Because World Cup qualification is dependent on previous success, Kramer is going to have to continue to perform to stay in Europe. While she doesn't have a set race schedule, Kramer is ready for the challenge.

"In World Cup, you have to keep making the different periods," she said. "And so you can't say if you're on the team for the year, like you are in college. You can't really draw out your season as much. And that's cool, it keeps me on my toes."

APU skiers Rosie Brennan and Novie McCabe join Kramer on Team USA this year.

While she doesn't have the expectations of previous years at World Cup, Kramer has high expectations for herself. A national champion at the collegiate level in skiing and a runner-up in cross country running, she is motivated to continue that success in Europe.

She was recently named a finalist for the NCAA Woman of the Year honor.

"I think maybe my successes in two sports and my two degrees (biology and psychology) made me stand out," she said. "It was really cool — I don't know the stats but I am guessing it's pretty rare for a skier to be a finalist for the award."

The first World Cup stop in Ruka, Finland, kicks off with a 10K interval classic race at 12:30 a.m. AKST on Friday. Action continues with a sprint final at 1:25 a.m. Saturday. The mass start 20K freestyle race starts at 12 a.m. Sunday.