How can one determine whether a victory is superior?
One sign is that the winner can brake on the final straight, plow to an almost complete standstill to pick up a Swedish flag, and then calmly ski across the finish line.
And still win by a margin of 51 seconds.
I don't know if it's really sunk in yet. It was so much fun today, Frida Karlsson said, and continued:
We had such great skis and everything around that made it possible.
I felt like I had the day too. Everything was going well. Suddenly I was standing there at the top.
Sweet revenge
For Frida Karlsson, the gold in Saturday's skiathlon is the first individual Olympic medal of her career. But it is also sweet revenge after the Beijing Olympics four years ago, when everything went wrong. Karlsson collapsed during several races and was stopped by the medical team from even running the final three miles.
Now she offered a rarely seen demonstration of how to race a skiathlon, when the Olympic cross-country competitions began in Val di Fiemme.
Two heavy competitors fell away already on one of the first downhills, when both the United States' Jessie Diggins and Norway's Karoline Simpson-Larsen fell. Almost everyone else couldn't keep the high pace that the Sollefteå duo, Karlsson and Ebba Andersson, set up right away together with Norway's Astrid Øyre Slind.
Jonna Sundling held on longer than most but completely ran out of steam during the last kilometer of the classic section. By the time the ski change was over, it was clear that a Swedish-Norwegian trio would fight for the gold.
With skate skis on, Karlsson and Andersson increased the pace even further and beat Slind in just a few kilometers. Shortly after, even Ebba Andersson - world champion in skiathlon in both 2023 and 2025 - could not keep up.
First since Kalla
The distance just grew and grew and Frida Karlsson paraded across the finish line – finally draped in a large blue and yellow flag – as Olympic champion for the first time in her career.
The race also marked a milestone for Ebba Andersson. The Olympic silver is the 28-year-old's first individual Olympic medal.
Frida Karlsson's gold is not only the first for the Swedish squad in the 2026 Winter Olympics. It is also the first Swedish Olympic gold in a distance race since Charlotte Kalla won the skiathlon in Pyeongchang 2018.
The bronze went to Norwegian Heidi Weng.
Lasse Mannheimer/TT
Facts: Frida Karlsson
TT
Born: August 10, 1999 (26 years old) in Sollefteå.
Lives: Östersund and Sollefteå.
Coach: Per Nilsson.
Main achievements: Olympic gold medal 2026 (skiathlon), 2 World Cup gold medals 2025 (50 km, relay), 1 World Cup gold medal 2019 (relay), Olympic bronze medal 2022 (relay). 5 World Cup silver medals and 5 World Cup bronze medals. 13 individual World Cup victories.
