As top cross-country skiers prepare for the start of the 2025-26 World Cup season and the 2026 Winter Olympics, an elite group has spent the past six months training in southern Vermont. Olympians Jessie Diggins, Julia Kern, and Ben Ogden, along with several other national and international athletes, have made Stratton Mountain their offseason base as part of the SMS T2 elite team.
The team, founded in 2012 through a partnership between Stratton Mountain School and the T2 Foundation—now under the World Cup Dreams Foundation—has cemented its reputation as a top offseason training destination in the United States. Head coach Colin Rodgers, a former Middlebury College skier and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Coach of the Year, emphasized Stratton’s strengths: varied terrain, high-end training facilities, and a supportive local community.
“This place has a tradition and track record that’s probably unmatched anywhere else,” Rodgers said. Training takes place six days a week and involves running, cycling, roller-skiing, hiking, swimming, and strength work. On Mondays, athletes rest to give their bodies time to absorb the intensity.
Diggins, a three-time Olympic medalist and reigning World Cup champion, has highlighted the program in her memoir and credits Stratton’s environment with helping her maintain the balance between pushing limits and avoiding injury. “You’re trying to train as hard and as much as you can, but not stepping over into injury or burnout,” she said. “Every day that you work out you add another [brick], and then the weeks build into a really strong base.”
Kern, a two-time World Championship medalist, joined the team a decade ago at 18. “I wanted to train with the best,” she said. Ogden, a University of Vermont graduate and former NCAA champion, grew up visiting Stratton and is now one of the country’s top cross-country prospects. He won the 2023 World Cup Green Bib for the fastest skier under 23.
The SMS T2 team draws from a long legacy of Vermont skiing. Sverre Caldwell—former coach at Stratton Mountain School and father of Olympian Sophie Caldwell—played a key role in founding the program. His father, John Caldwell, competed in the 1952 Olympics and authored a well-known 1964 guidebook considered foundational in American Nordic skiing. Another founding figure, Bill Koch, was the first American to win a Nordic Olympic medal, in 1976.
The current roster includes not only U.S. A-team members but also up-and-coming athletes like Fin Bailey and Jack Lange, as well as Canadian skier Rémi Drolet. Together, the group trains in Stratton and occasionally travels to other locations like Lake Placid, New York; Park City, Utah; and, for on-snow opportunities, New Zealand.
“We’re getting prepped all the ways you can when you don’t have snow underneath your feet,” Rodgers said of the summer and fall program. Despite the lack of snow, the athletes simulate winter conditions with roller-skiing—devices Diggins jokingly called “speedy death traps” due to their lack of brakes. But according to the skiers, the variety, intensity, and camaraderie more than make up for the risks.
The training is not isolated from the community. In August, SMS T2 held a question-and-answer event for over 100 area children from the Bill Koch Youth Ski League. Diggins, who is known for wearing glitter during races, joked about once applying it to Ogden’s mustache for a relay.
The athletes now turn their attention to the World Cup season, with racing set to begin on November 28 in Finland. After that, they will compete in the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy and the World Cup finals in March 2026, scheduled for the first time in Lake Placid. For now, though, the focus remains on daily discipline in Vermont.
“The process of being fit enough to try to win the race is the fun part,” Diggins said. “The race is like the cherry on top.” For more winter sports coverage, see how New Hampshire ski areas are preparing for the upcoming season with equipment and infrastructure investments.
