Before the season, national team skiers predicting who would be this year's Swedish breakthrough in the World Cup mentioned one name more than any other.
On Saturday, Anton Grahn showed why.
"This was really cool. It feels like this is what you've been fighting for your whole life. Every training session has been about this," says Anton Grahn after his first World Cup podium.
Third place in the classic sprint in Val di Fiemme, on the penultimate stage of the Tour de Ski, was the big surprise of the day.
The dream: Olympic gold
The stadium began to dim as the 21-year-old, last year's U23 world sprint champion, talked about his feelings - and about who he is, for those who don't know.
"I'm a guy from southern Sweden, below Lake Vättern in Jönköping, who has enjoyed skiing all his life. And I'm pretty good at running uphill and sprinting on the flat," says Grahn.
Saturday's sprint was held on the same course, and in the same classic style, as the Olympic sprint on February 10th.
"This is the track I have specifically trained for. What I have trained on is working well; the diagonal stride is fine. The run-up is not quite as I want it to be, but that is because I have been going so hard before. It's a race that leaves you wanting more, perhaps because I did not really have the day," says Grahn.
Taking his first World Cup podium without "having the day" sounds promising, to say the least. Grahn was only three hundredths of a second behind Frenchman Jules Chappaz in second place. The winner, the almost unbeatable Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, was in a class of his own.
But Anton Grahn, who has already qualified for the Olympics, thinks that even the Norwegian can be defeated.
"I dream of winning an Olympic gold medal. And it doesn't feel that far away. When Johannes started skiing today, it felt like a long way away, but if I can have a better day, I can do even better," says Grahn.
"But it's more of a dream, I don't know if it's realistic."
For another great talent, it all ended in the quarterfinals. Alvar Myhlback broke his pole right at the start.
"It wasn't fun at all. I was angry," says the 19-year-old, who, like Grahn, has already secured his Olympic spot.
"Here to win"
Myhlback was forced to ski a longer distance with only one pole before a team leader could replace it.
However, the situation was hopeless and he was never close to moving on.
"It's a competition and I'm here to win. Now I don't even get to test how good I was, I think that's boring," says Myhlback, who finished tenth in the sprint qualifying.
Edvin Anger was also eliminated in the quarterfinals. Anger, who has also qualified for the Olympics, finished third in his heat and failed to advance on time.
