Modin followed up Tuesday's sprint bronze with another bronze medal in the 10-kilometer classic. The 31-year-old, who is blind, has now collected ten during his Paralympic career.
But it was hard.
– It was unbelievable, really. The conditions were terrible. I tried to keep it moderate and we'll see how it goes. I felt like I couldn't get too tired in this because then I'd stop, Modin tells SVT about the extremely loose snow in the tracks.
At the final intermediate stage (8.7 kilometers), Zebastian Modin was fourth, just under five seconds behind third-placed Yu Shuang from China. The 31-year-old Swede gave it his all in the final kilometer - and made it onto the podium, finishing six-tenths of a second ahead of Yu.
I thought, “Now we just have to go as far as we can at the end.” And so we made it,” says Modin.
I'm very happy. It's not the best skiing I've ever done, but considering the conditions, I'm really happy.
American Jake Adicoff took gold and Finn Inkki Inola took silver.
Three more Swedish skiers competed in cross-country skiing in Val di Fiemme on Wednesday. Ellen Westerlund came fifth and Alice Morelius eighth in the 10-kilometer standing class. Arnt-Christian Furuberg came 16th in the same distance among the seated skiers.
Born: June 20, 1994 (age 31), in Frösö parish.
Club: Östersunds SK.
Sports: Para sports (long-distance and biathlon).
Guide: Emil Talsi.
Main achievements: Four Paralympic silver medals (sprint and mixed relay 2014, sprint 2018, 12.5 km freestyle 2022) and six Paralympic bronze medals (sprint 2010, 20 km 2014, sprint and 20 km 2022, sprint and 10 km 2026). Eleven World Cup medals, of which five are gold. Winner of the overall World Cup in long-distance seven times.
Disability: Blind. Modin was born with the eye disease glaucoma and, after a botched operation when he was six, he lost all vision in his left eye. When he was twelve, he also lost vision in his right eye.
Class: NS1 - skiers with blindness who compete wearing dark glasses. Competes against skiers in classes NS2 and NS3, who have minor visual impairments.
Source: Swedish Paralympic Committee.
