The Nordic king: Vermont’s Ben Ogden is tearing up the World Cup circuit

A Landgrove, Vt., native, Ben Ogden scored a 13th-place finish at the Tour de Ski, best-ever finish by a U.S. male. (Jeb Wallace Brodeur)

A southern Vermont boy at heart, Ben Ogden is on the international stage as a Nordic skier competing with European powerhouse skiers like Joannes Klaebo from Norway and Federico Pellegrino from Italy, who have dominated the playing field for years. 

Only a handful of other American male Nordic skiers have enjoyed this kind of success on the World Cup circuit since fellow Vermonter Bill Koch won silver at the 1976 Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria.

Growing up in the Green Mountains can be different from what you might think. Unicycling to school on dirt roads, building downhill obstacle courses, and landing big-air jumps on skinny skis was part of growing up for Ogden, a 23-year-old U.S. Ski Team racer who made history in early January with the top finish by a U.S. male in the Tour de Ski as part of the 2022-23 FIS Cross-Country World Cup.

“My goal is to be the athlete who does it all,” Ogden said, while explaining why the Tour de Ski is a test of the ultimate skier. The competition included a final climb on the Alpe Cermis resort with a section that is almost 30 degrees steep in parts and considered the toughest course on the World Cup circuit. The cross-country ski competition — held in Switzerland, Germany and Italy this year — has 6-9 stages. The combined time determines the winner.

Ogden splits his time between the U.S. Ski Team and the Nordic team for the University of Vermont, where he is a graduate student studying mechanical engineering. He has been on the UVM team for five years thanks to an extra year of eligibility due to COVID.

“It’s super awesome to be back with the UVM squad who I train with in the fall,” said Ogden, who competed at the Bates Carnival in the 7.5 km and 10 km skate and at the St. Michael’s Carnival in the skate sprint and 15 km classic. He won all four events, while other UVM athletes also scored, including Jacob Nystedt, who was just a split second behind Ogden in the Bates 7.5 km.

Ogden and his teammates won gold at the 2019 and 2020 FIS Nordic Junior World Championships. In college, Ogden has won three national titles, two in 2022 and one in 2020. Last year, Ogden competed at the Beijing Winter Olympics, with a ninth-place finish in the team sprint classic and 12th in the sprint freestyle.

Ogden gained confidence after earning some key finishes, including qualifying for a spot in the world championships, two years ago. “I started to think I could be competitive,” he said, adding that he began to take competition more seriously in high school with aspirations of one day making the U.S. team.

He credits UVM coach Patrick Weaver, a former Olympian, as a huge part of his success. Weaver was the first person Ogden reached out to when he was “on edge” before a second race at the Olympics last year.

Ogden’s career accomplishments on the World Cup circuit keep getting better. A highlight this season was his sixth place in the 10 km classic in Oberstdorf, Germany, during the Tour de Ski. He’s made it to the semifinals in several sprint events on very technical courses with some serious downhills, earning the junior leader bib.

The season is also far from over. After his schedule of college events in January, Ogden was back in Europe, finishing 11th in the classic sprint in Les Rousses, France. He’s working hard to prepare for the upcoming world championships in Planica, Slovenia. Then he travels back to the U.S. to compete with his Catamount teammates in the NCAA championships, scheduled for March 5-8 in Lake Placid.

Ben’s father, John, grew up in Landgrove, Vt., and coached the local youth ski league, the West River Club, which got Ben into skiing at a young age. In the Bill Koch Youth Ski League, Ben raced against different Nordic clubs in southern Vermont, where he met many of his closest friends. He later attended Stratton Mountain School, which provided year-round training by professional coaches. 

“My friends and I lived for our homemade terrain parks — the rails, the jumps, the tunnels and everything else,” Ogden said. 

Whenever there was a weekend off from racing, they hung out in the backyards, messing around on skis. 

“Everyone who was anyone back then was on Jib Skates, Andy Newell custom twin-tip cross-country skis that allowed me to ski all over the place ripping backflips and 360s and all kinds of other silly things,” Ogden said. 

Koch lives in Ogden’s southern Vermont neighborhood and influenced Ben in more ways than one. 

“Skiing at the Kochs was amazing. He had a jump line that started in a tree house and it was the most fun thing ever,” Ogden said. “That was the beauty of growing up in southern Vermont.”

“Ben was always throwing huge air with tricks,” said Koch, who explained that he built a ski park for the kids to play and have fun while also learning great ski skills. The course featured three consecutive jumps and lots of banked turns and swoops. 

“Climbing repeatedly back to the top of the course really got those kids in shape, while honing their skiing skills,” Koch said.

Ogden reflects fondly on those days. 

“First and foremost, it taught me to love the sport and truly enjoy every second that I am fortunate enough to spend on skis,” he said.

Despite his accolades, Ogden just likes to blend in with the guys when he is back home. In his spare time, he likes to tinker with woodworking and welding and has hopes of building more accessible and functional electric cars with his mechanical engineering degree.