Ebba Andersson threw at the end and finished an excellent fourth place when the women ran their first five miles at a world championships last year.
She caused quite a stir when the Swedish relay gold turned into silver at the start of the Olympic Games.
In the two individual races she competed in this year’s Olympic Games here, she came second behind Frida Karlsson.
This time nothing could stop Ebba Andersson. No noise, no chaos, no headlines about all the gaps in the team could upset them, no competitor.
A year ago had Sweden won five out of five gold medals and at the last meeting before the race it was said:
“We have to have this gold.”
When you saw Ebba Andersson before Sunday’s five-mile race, her look said:
“I want the gold.”
On the long, hard, sucking hill out of the stadium area, Ebba provided the needed push.
Ebba stayed healthy and stayed on her feet on the slopes, and with just over two miles to go, Norway’s Heidi Weng couldn’t keep up with Ebba Andersson’s pace.
And if the white skier Lying alone and training at the top, it was like going back in time thirteen years and ending up right here.
It was the same scorching sun. Every now and then it was the ski slopes of Val di Fiemme. It was Johan Olsson who wanted to do in 2013 what Torgny Mogren had done here in 1991: win World Championship gold in the five-mile run.
Johan Olsson did it with a solo run and now came a favorite in a repeat.
On the final day of the 2026 Olympics, Ebba Andersson scored an impressive performance to score a knockout victory and claim her first career Olympic gold.
The women win five of six gold medals and make their best Olympic Games.
The gold means Sweden will win 18 medals at the 2026 Olympics, the same number as in 2022.
Ebba Andersson secured the tenth medal for the national cross-country team, up from eleven in 2014. The women’s national team has won them all, winning five of six gold medals and delivering their best Olympic Games.
In another part of the Olympics Lag Hasselborg had already made history by becoming the first Swedish curling team to win a medal at three consecutive Olympics.
The cross country team can learn a lot from the curlers.
And the national cross-country skiing team can still learn a lot from the curlers. When three of the players became mothers and were aiming for the 2026 Olympics again, the game didn’t work out. The rest of the world elite had withdrawn.
So Anna Hasselborg gathered the players and then everything was ventilated and ventilated. The ceiling was high and from there a new journey to new Olympics began.
And even though Sweden has won so many ski medals, there is still so much to sort out after the Games.
That men make you Since it was a historically bad game, we knew we would need a thorough analysis.
But now a thorough revision is required so that the following historical fiasco does not repeat itself:
The world’s best women’s national team only had two skaters at the start.
One of the great success factors of the women’s national team also explains the embarrassing Swedish gap in the starting field.
With this freedom, the responsibility and feeling for the group disappeared.
The national team management gave the drivers a lot of freedom in planning. Frida Karlsson chose the high altitude in Italy, Ebba Andersson for her home game in Sweden. Other drivers have chosen other arrangements.
With this freedom, the responsibility and feeling for the group obviously disappeared.
Riders who weren’t feeling at their best before Sunday’s tough five miles wanted to go home and were allowed to do so. Drivers who were not considered for one of the four spots were sent home.
This is primarily a leadership issue.
It should have been obvious that skaters need to know that they need to be available for the final Olympic race. This should have been clear to everyone long before the games in Italy.
It’s a word that needs to be recycled, which is that this is a leadership issue.
Because when first Frida Karlsson and then Jonna Sundling fell ill, the fiasco was a fact.
The world’s best women’s national team started the biggest competition in four years with just two skaters. Other countries such as Italy and Germany also had large gaps in the team, but Sweden is the world’s best skiing nation for women. Starting with a complete team is a given minimum requirement.
The Swedish women’s national team had its best Olympics in history, but the 2026 Olympics still has a sad aftertaste.
Only Ebba Andersson and Emma Ribom started the five miles. You can say it’s embarrassing and scandalous, but it’s a word that needs to be recycled, and that is that this is a leadership issue.
When the leaders select a runner for an Olympics or a World Championships, it was easy to believe that the runners were selected to be available for a full championship.
That was obviously not the case.
She did what skiers are here to do. Take part in the Olympics.
And when the sun rose over the Fiemme Valley and the skiers put their skis down at the start, Emma Ribom played a heroic role.
She was pushed out in the sprint, where she had been a medal contender, and she was pushed out in the sprint relay, where she could have competed and taken home gold.
Emma Ribom was depressed But I fought on and trained in solitude on the Lavazè plateau. She did two races during the Olympics, neither of those races were her favorite distance, but she did what skiers are here to do. Take part in the Olympics.
