She retired at the top of her career in 2023, at just 24 years old. Last autumn, she decided to make a comeback, and now, just one month after returning, she is highly relevant for the Olympic Games in February.

When she made her comeback the first weekend of December, she had not competed since March 2023. Now, the 27-year-old from Anchorage, Alaska, is a newly crowned national champion in the 10km classic. She has six podium finishes, including three victories, in nine races. Everything points toward her heading for her second Olympic Games.

“If you had told me a year ago that I would be where I am now, I would have laughed at you,” says Hailey Swirbul, according to Langrenn.com.

When she retired after the World Cup final in 2023, she was convinced that her cross-country skiing career was a closed chapter.

Also Read: American cross-country skier retiring two years before the World Championships in Norway

Highs and lows

For two and a half years, Swirbul tried out different jobs and lifestyles. She earned a pilot’s license, became a pilot, traveled a bit, and started engineering studies. Last winter, she worked with a ski patrol in Colorado and had already signed up for another season there.

Last summer, Swirbul took a job as a cross-country skiing coach at Alaska Pacific University (APU) in Anchorage, through the autumn. That was when the idea of making a comeback first emerged.

“It was grinding in my head all through June and July. I couldn’t stop thinking about it,” she says on her Substack.

It didn’t help that a former teammate repeatedly asked whether she was considering a comeback.

After a training camp in August with the team she was coaching and a several-hour discussion with APU head coach Erik Flora, she decided to give it a try.

Straight to the top

Swirbul went on an altitude camp in Utah in the autumn and won a roller ski race there. That’s when she really began to believe in the project.

“I was surprised at how well I did in that roller ski race in Utah. But it gave me hope that maybe I could manage to come back at a high level,” she explains.

In December, she was ready for her comeback on the North American circuit, the US SuperTour.

Read More – US SuperTour: Calendar for the 2025/2026 winter season

Swirbul admits the potential fall felt enormous.

“I was anxious about all the expectations, even the well-meaning ones, from my supporters and others following me. And I was afraid of my own expectations. Part of me hoped I would be right back where I was when I retired in 2023,” she explains.

Success and panic

Swirbul skied to second place in the sprint at her comeback race in the U.S. Super Tour the first weekend of December, her first competition since the World Cup final in Lahti in 2023.

But the comeback weekend was not without drama and panic. The day after her debut, she finished 26th in the 10km freestyle.

The reason? She arrived two minutes late to the start.

“I had mixed up the start time. I thought I was starting at 11:59, but my start time was 11:49. When I realized the mistake, it was 11:48, and I was inside my club’s cabin changing,” says Swirbul.

After that, however, everything has gone only one way: straight up.

The weekend after her comeback, Swirbul took two more podium finishes in the American Cup, including a victory.

Last weekend, she became the U.S. champion in the 10km classic, her fifth race since retiring in 2023. She also took fifth place and a seventh place at the championships, as well as second place in the sprint this weekend. On January 20, the U.S. will present its Olympic team.

But why did she retire in 2023, just 24 years old, and after the best season of her life?

The truth is that thoughts of retirement had been there for more than 2 years.

“I actually started doubting and considering retiring as early as the first period of the World Cup in 2020. I had a hard time in Europe. Covid made me feel isolated and like I should be afraid of people, including my own teammates, and I was far away from my family,” says Swirbul.

The low point

The World Cup in Davos, the last before Christmas, became a low point for the young American.

“I had gone through a breakup the week before and honestly wasn’t mentally switched on. Then I skied to third place, my very first World Cup podium. I remember standing there on the podium, wearing a face mask, next to my teammate Rosie (Brennan), who had won, and I just felt empty,” she says.

Swirbul recalls thinking, “Is this all? Is this what I’ve trained for and dreamed about for the last 12 years of my life?”

Still, she fought her way through that season and the Olympic season in 2022.

The turning point

Ahead of the 2022/2023 season, she tried to change her mindset. She wanted to find a better balance, so she could continue her career in a way that felt more sustainable.

But the thoughts of retiring wouldn’t let go. In the middle of the skiathlon at the 2023 World Championships in Planica, she finally made the decision and felt relieved.

“I finished the season with gratitude and joy for every single race. I let the emotions flow and let everything sink in. When I crossed the finish line in Lahti after my last World Cup race and ended my career as a cross-country skier, I felt the warmth and love we have within our team,” says Swirbul.

So why make a comeback now?

Swirbul says there are several factors, but lists the following as some of the most important in the Seder Skier podcast:

• Curiosity about whether it is possible to return to the level she reached at her best
• The desire to contribute in a mentor role within the team and share her experience with younger athletes, as others once did for her
• The chance to represent her country at the Olympic Games without it being in the middle of a Covid pandemic
• Inspiration from the book Four Thousand Weeks, which changed how she views life and how she wants to live it
• Simply loving the lifestyle that comes with training and competing.

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