PARK CITY, Utah — Gus Schumacher woke up on a late February morning four years ago and immediately noticed the sticky note his mother had left on his computer.
“Watch the race,” it said.
Schumacher knew which race his mother meant: the women’s team sprint at the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The race had taken place while he slept, but Schumacher, an aspiring professional cross country skier, did as he was told. And in the dark in Alaska, as he watched Jessie Diggins come off the final turn in South Korea with a burst of power and speed to secure her team’s gold medal — the first c — everything he thought about his future as a competitive racer shifted.