PARK CITY, UTAH – University of Vermont sophomore Ben Ogden was announced Monday as one of the Davis U.S. Cross Country Ski Team nominations for the 2020-21 season. Nominations include those active athletes who qualified based on published selection criteria in the prior season.
 
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U.S. Ski & Snowboard Release
 
"The 2021 U.S. Cross Country Team has more depth than any team in modern American cross country ski racing history," said Davis U.S. Cross Country Team Program Director Chris Grover. "From our seasoned veterans who will be focused on bringing home hardware from the 2021 FIS World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany, to the members of the Development Team, who can nearly all boast having at least one World Junior Championships medal, this team offers so many ways to win. Athletes in this group have systematically broken down every barrier in cross country performance that traditionally blocked American athletes, including World Junior gold, to World Championships gold, to Olympic gold."
 
Ogden will be a part of the largest Developmental Team squad ever nominated with 11 athletes. Ogden and D Team members Luke Jager and Johnny Haugenbach were members of the gold-medal-winning 2019 and 2020 FIS Junior World Ski Championships men's relay team.
 
Ogden won the Catamounts 68th individual national championship at the NCAA Skiing Championships in March and was named the USCCSA Men's Nordic Skier of the Year. He earned First Team All-American honors with a first-place time of 23:50.2 in the 10k Freestyle to earn his first national title. Ogden skied in 10 EISA races this season, winning six of them. He didn't finish lower than fourth in any of them. He was also named to the All-East First Team and was the EISA Classic Bib Leader.
 
Former Catamount and 2018 Olympian Scott Patterson '14 was also named to the men's B Team for the United States.
 
Each athlete accepting the nomination to U.S. Ski Team receives world-class program support, along with access to the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Center of Excellence, as well as athletic benefits including an elite coaching, sport science, sports medicine, and high-performance staff, and education opportunities.
 
Athletes nominated to the team are scheduled to open the season in with their first training camp in Park City, Utah (pending COVID-19 considerations). 
 
Idletyme is the presenting sponsor of the 2020 skiing season.