TESERO, Italy (AP) — Fresh off ending a 50‑year medal drought in men's cross-country skiing, American Ben Ogden proved Wednesday it was no fluke by winning a second silver.
Teaming up with Gus Schumacher, the U.S. men even gave runaway favorites Norway some real competition and held off host-country Italy in the home stretch for its winningest Olympics ever at the Milan Cortina Games.
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Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, Gus Schumacher, of the United States, left, and Federico Pellegrino, of Italy, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ben Ogden, of the United States, from left, Elia Barp, of Italy, Johan Haeggstroem, of Sweden, Janik Riebli, of Switzerland, and Antoine Cyr, of Canada, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, Gus Schumacher, of the United States, left, and Federico Pellegrino, of Italy, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ben Ogden, right, and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, celebrate after winning the silver medal in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Ben Ogden, of the United States, from left, Elia Barp, of Italy, Johan Haeggstroem, of Sweden, Janik Riebli, of Switzerland, and Antoine Cyr, of Canada, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, pose after winning the silver medal in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
“We just proved today and all week that we’re here to stay and that U.S. guys are in good form," Ogden said. "So it was awesome.”
Ogden became the first American man to win a cross-country skiing medal in the Olympics in 50 years when he won a silver in the sprint event on Feb. 10. Until then, Bill Koch, who won silver in 1976 in Innsbruck, was the sole American man to medal in the sport.
The win in the men’s team sprint makes Ogden America's most decorated male cross-country skier.
The two-man relay involved two legs by each skier, with Ogden starting the race and Schumacher closing.
That meant Schumacher was competing head-to-head with Norway’s Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, who has dominated the sport and keeps setting new Olympic records. Klaebo's win Wednesday was his 10th gold medal, breaking his own record for the most overall golds in the Winter Olympics.
As Schumacher stayed on Klaebo's tail up the final climb, his focus was: “Look at Klaebo’s butt and just lock in and follow that to the finish line,” he said. "I did it and I’m really proud of it.”
Schumacher couldn't catch Klaebo but he held off Italy's Federico Pellegrino.
With 10 meters to go, he saw Ogden across the finish line to greet him and knew a medal was in hand. He crossed the line 1.4 seconds behind Klaebo and collapsed in the snow. Ogden dropped to his knees and hugged his teammate and friend.
“I'm going to be the guy that got beat,” Schumacher joked. “That’s the problem with being second, but yeah, I am so happy with it.”
In recent years, the story of U.S. cross-country skiing has been about the women and super star Jessie Diggins, the current World Cup leader who is in her final Olympics.
Diggins is the most decorated U.S. cross-country skier with four medals, including a gold from 2018 in Pyeongchang in the team sprint with Kikkan Randall, a silver and two bronze, including her most recent last week in the 10-kilometer interval start.
Diggins and Julia Kern finished fifth in the women's team sprint Wednesday.
Ogden said the result was “huge” for U.S. skiing and he hoped the bicoastal victory — he lives in Vermont and Schumacher lives in Alaska — will provide inspiration to all skiers.
“Everybody hopefully is gonna get fired up after seeing this because, you know, like, this week we proved that American skiers can do it just like anybody else and that applies to every age, every generation, everybody that’s in the ski community in the U.S.,” Ogden said. “So it’s gonna be sick to go home.”
Ogden said another half-century won’t pass before the U.S. steps on the podium again. Based on these results, he might be right.
This story has been corrected to show Diggins won two bronze and a silver, not two silvers and a bronze.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, Gus Schumacher, of the United States, left, and Federico Pellegrino, of Italy, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ben Ogden, right, and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, celebrate after winning the silver medal in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Ben Ogden, of the United States, from left, Elia Barp, of Italy, Johan Haeggstroem, of Sweden, Janik Riebli, of Switzerland, and Antoine Cyr, of Canada, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo, of Norway, and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, right, compete in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)
Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher, of the United States, pose after winning the silver medal in the cross-country skiing men's team sprint free at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Tesero, Italy, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is holding a high-level meeting Wednesday on the Gaza ceasefire deal and Israel's efforts to expand control in the West Bank before world leaders head to Washington to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories at the first gathering of President Donald Trump's Board of Peace.
The U.N. session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board's meeting for that same date and it became clear that it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations’ most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council.
Asked what he hopes to see from the back-to-back meetings this week, Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters Tuesday, “We expect from the international community to stop Israel and end their illegal effort against annexation, whether in Washington or in New York.”
Ahead of the session, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused the Security Council of being “infected with an anti-Israeli obsession” and insisted that no nation has a stronger right than its “historical and documented right to the land of the Bible.”
In addition to Israel, the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia are in attendance at the monthly Mideast meeting of the 15-member council after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and Israel's contentious West Bank settlement project before some of them head to Washington.
The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his 20-point plan for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president's ambitious new vision for the board to be a mediator of worldwide conflicts has led to skepticism from major allies.
While more than 20 countries have so far accepted an invitation to join the board, close U.S. partners, including France, Germany and others, have opted not to join yet and renewed support for the U.N., which also is in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.
Mike Waltz, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., dismissed concerns about the composition of the Board of Peace, telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in an interview Monday that the most relevant countries, including Qatar and Egypt, which are in touch with Hamas' leadership, have accepted the invitation.
“All of those countries are on the Board of Peace, singing the same tune as the United States,” he said.
The Security Council is meeting a day after nearly all of its 15 members — minus the United States — and dozens of other diplomats joined Palestinian ambassador Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of 80 countries and several organizations condemning Israel's latest actions in the West Bank, demanding an immediate reversal and underlining “strong opposition to any form of annexation.”
In the last several weeks, Israel has launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in the occupied West Bank. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to “de facto sovereignty” that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves an illegal annexation of the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.
The U.N. meeting also is expected to delve into the U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal that took effect Oct. 10 after more than two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Briefings by U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo and by Israeli and Palestinian civil society representatives were heard for the first time since the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks that launched the war.
DiCarlo said this is “a pivotal moment in the Middle East” that opens the possibility for the region to move in a new direction. “But that opening is neither assured nor indefinite,” she said, and whether it will be sustained depends on decisions in the coming weeks.
“Our collective efforts must now consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza and alleviate the suffering of the population,” she said. “We need concrete progress toward stabilization and recovery, consistent with international law, to lay the foundations for lasting peace. The Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C., tomorrow is an important step.”
Aspects of the ceasefire deal have moved forward, including Hamas releasing all the hostages it was holding and increased amounts of humanitarian aid getting into Gaza, though the U.N. says the level is insufficient. A new technocratic committee has been appointed to administer Gaza’s daily affairs.
But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.
Trump said this week that the Board of Peace members have pledged $5 billion toward Gaza reconstruction and will commit thousands of personnel to international stabilization and police forces for the territory. He didn't provide details. Indonesia’s military says up to 8,000 of its troops are expected to be ready by the end of June for a potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peace mission.
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk on the South Lawn to the White House after arriving on Marine One Monday evening, Feb. 16, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Allison Robbert)
FILE - The symbol of the United Nations is displayed outside the Secretariat Building, Feb. 28, 2022, at United Nations Headquarters. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
