Swedish Skiers Dominate Trondheim: Fourth Gold in Sprint Relay

The Swedish cross-country ladies are terrible guests in Trondheim. Maja Dahlqvist and Jonna Sundling brought home the sprint relay and snatched yet another gold, the fourth in a row, ahead of the Norwegian home crowd. "Snott and snott, we've worked hard for them," says Sundling.

» Published: March 05 2025 at 14:52

Gold in the individual sprint (Jonna Sundling), gold in skiathlon and on 10 kilometers classical (Ebba Andersson) and now also gold in sprint relay.

After four of six distances completed, the Swedish women have swept clean at the World Championship in Trondheim.

You can't say it's bad, says Jonna Sundling.

We thought it would be tough to match Planica (World Championship 2023, Sweden took four women's gold). But it seems to be going almost as well now, says Maja Dahlqvist.

Thought more about Norway

It was also a new blue-yellow victory in the big neighboring rivalry. But where the Norwegians previously challenged for World Championship gold, they were not even close now. Lotta Udnes Weng and Kristine Stavås Skistad were nearly a minute behind Sweden, in seventh place.

It feels super good, says Dahlqvist.

I thought they had more in them based on the team they put up. But it's tough out there today. They do their best, we do our best. And then it apparently became that distance, says Sundling.

Trondheim has offered all kinds of weather. On Wednesday, it gave a persistent drizzle that never wanted to give up.

The Swedish tactic worked perfectly: Jonna Sundling grilled the field on the first leg, Maja Dahlqvist never let the opponents in on the second leg.

USA's Jessie Diggins and Julia Kern were closest to being able to keep up and took silver. The bronze went to Switzerland after Nadine Fähndrich sprinted down Finnish Jasmi Joensuu on the final leg.

For Sweden, it was the fourth consecutive World Championship gold in sprint relay. All four times – previously in Seefeld, Oberstdorf, and Planica – either Sundling or Dahlqvist have been involved.

"Classic trash talk"

And with four consecutive Swedish golds on Granåsen outside Trondheim, the blue-yellow women are on the verge of ruining the home party completely. Two races remain, the traditional relay and the 50-kilometer.

But national team manager Anders Byström doesn't even want to talk about Sweden's women having the chance to win everything.

We can't keep talking about that. It's classic "trash talk". One match at a time, says Byström.

Four golds so far, can you talk about that?

Yes, it's big. We maybe didn't think so. On the opponents' home arena, it's very strong. Historically, I have a hard time seeing that we've had a championship like this before.

Lasse Mannheimer/TT