It is with smiles on their faces that the Swedish ladies gather outside their motel in Norway. The last time they competed here, they ended up with six gold medals out of a possible six.
We have very fond memories of here, not least from the World Cup. So it's a place where we as a team feel comfortable, says Emma Ribom ahead of this weekend's World Cup competitions in Trondheim.
For Ribom, Friday's sprint will be an attempt at revenge from last week in Ruka. Saturday ended with an illegal skate skid in the quarter-finals and a disqualification. Sunday was no better after a fall in the two-mile.
A real pole weekend. It felt like I had way too much bad luck to be honest. When I fell there on the last lap it felt like the cup was going to overflow.
She admits that it hasn't been easy to let go and move on.
–You just have to trust your own feelings and things like that, but it's not easy.
I think it's an advantage that the body still works and that the feeling is good, but then it's also difficult when things aren't really flowing and you don't really dare to trust it.
Once in Trondheim, it will mainly be nice to ride a classic sprint, she says.
These are tracks that I really like and it's fun to ride classic. There's been a lot of skating on this track, so I'm looking forward to that.
Friday's sprint qualifying starts at 9:45 a.m.
