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A well-known cross-country skier and former coach in the Twin Cities is boycotting the American Birkebeiner— the largest Nordic ski race in the country — over concerns of gender equity. 

Kris Hansen of Afton, Minn., the longtime coach at Stillwater High School, and former coach of Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins, wants Birkie race officials to make changes to how they manage the thousands of skiers who compete. 

She argues adjustments are needed to ensure that more women who are fit and experienced skiers qualify to start in prime positions earlier in the race. 

The Birkie separates skiers into “waves” to spread them out on the 50-kilometer race course. In general, the fastest skiers start first, in higher waves, with slower skiers starting farther back. 

But Hansen said this year she saw something that didn’t sit right. 

“I noticed that some women who were extraordinary high school skiers and even went on to ski in college, were starting the race in wave two. And it struck me as very odd that women with that high degree of skill and competence on their skis, were starting so far back in the pack.”

And starting farther back can have a big impact on a skier’s race. The course conditions can deteriorate rapidly after more skiers have gone over the snow and temperatures increase. They’re also surrounded by skiers with less experience. 

Hansen looked at the criteria the Birkie uses to place skiers into waves. She realized that wave placement (outside of the elite waves, which are reserved for the fastest skiers) is based on how far back racers finished from the fastest racer in the past year’s event. That meant that women were being compared to the fastest man, rather than the fastest female finisher. 

“I saw that and I couldn't believe it,” Hansen recalled. “I thought that's ridiculous. This is 2023. We need some equity here.”

Hansen did the math and calculated that if women’s times were evaluated against the top female finisher — rather than the top male finisher — more than two times as many women would have qualified to start in the first wave in this year’s race. 

She also wants more women to be classified as elite wave skiers. Those competitors start earliest in the race and experience the best course conditions, and encounter the fewest other skiers on the course. Currently there are about a third as many women “elite” racers as men. 

Kristy Maki, the event director for the American Birkebeiner Ski Foundation, said their policy is because there are simply a lot more men who race the Birkie. Only about 20 percent of racers are women (although there are a much greater percentage of women who ski shorter distance Birkie races). 

At this year’s Birkie in March, 200 men qualified for the freestyle elite wave compared to 65 women. But on a percentage basis it was roughly equal — about 5.8 percent of male racers qualified for the elite wave, compared to about 6.2 percent of women. 

But after the elite wave, Maki said, “we're looking at all participants the same.” One of the most important considerations for organizers is the “flow” of the race; how more than 6,000 skiers move along the course over the length of the day. 

“So you want skiers of like ability skiing together,” Maki said. “That makes the race flow better, that makes people move together without passing people as much. And so it's a much more enjoyable experience when you're surrounded with people, regardless of whether they’re men or women, that can push you and that can travel at a similar speed and ability.”

While the Birkie declined to make the changes Hansen is seeking for next year’s race, Maki says they are working to increase the number of women who participate in the long-distance ski event. 

 this winter, an inaugural camp and race put on by the Birkie foundation, designed specifically for women seeking to improve their skiing skills. 

Hansen applauds those efforts. But she said change isn’t happening quickly enough. Over the past decade, she said, women’s participation at the Birkie has only increased about 5 percent. 

“Equity means giving more opportunities to women and reflecting the numbers you want, not the numbers you have,” said Maria Stuber, cross country ski coach at the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth. 

For Kris Hansen, she said boycotting next winter’s race was not an easy decision. She acknowledged her decision could be seen as divisive in the very tight-knit Nordic ski community. 

“But I do hope that it sparks a conversation. And it gives women a chance to say, look, I'm not being a whiner to talk about the fact that the conditions are not equitable.”

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Kris Hansen, the longtime coach at Stillwater High School, and former coach of Olympic gold medalist Jessie Diggins, wants Birkie race officials to make changes that would result in more women qualifying to start in prime positions earlier in the race. 

2019 American Birkebeiner cross-country ski race

Courtesy of Kris Hansen

Collins, Bob

Competitors in the men's 51-kilometer event in 2015.

Jessie Diggins' former ski coach to boycott 'Birkie' over gender equity concerns

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