- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 1,130,247
- Reaction score
- 59
You must be registered for see images attach
Norway's Heidi Weng (2nd R) celebrates victory after the Nordic Skiing/Cross-Country Women's 4x7,5km Relay event at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium during the 2026 Winter Olympic Games in Milan-Cortina. Daniel Karmann/dpa
Norway claimed an improbable cross country women's relay gold at the Winter Olympics on Saturday after Ebba Andersson met disaster for top favourites Sweden in the second leg.
World champions Sweden eventually fought back to silver behind Norway, with Finland taking bronze as the relay once again proved unpredictable.
Sweden had won seven of the previous nine medals at the Games and the relay team boasted sprint winner and silver medallist Linn Svahn and Jonna Sundling as well as skiathlon and 10km gold and silver medallists Frida Karlsson and Andersson.
Andersson inherited a small lead from Svahn but then fell twice, first on an uphill to lose contact to the top.
It got worse later on a downhill when she somersaulted into the snow, losing her right ski and its binding seemingly coming off. She continued for almost one minute on one ski before a team member, who also fell rushing over, provided her with a spare ski.
"It's not memories that I want to remember. It was a tough day for me and unfortunately, that made it a tough day for the team," crestfallen Andersson said.
"But we share victories and also when it's not going that well. Today was one of those days."
Karlsson and Sundling managed to come back from eighth at the second exchange and Karlsson insisting that they "won" the silver.
Svahn said: "It's the best team. To have your best friends in the team, if it's an up, a down, a silver medal, a gold, we share everything together. I'm really proud of everyone."
Up front, Norway were untouchable once Andersson met disaster and won the 4x7.5km race with the quartet of Kristin Austgulen Fosnæs, Astrid Øyre Slind, Karoline Simpson-Larsen and Heidi Weng.
They were 50.9 seconds ahead of Sweden and 1 minute 14.7 seconds clear of Finland.
Slind said she was no idea of Andersson's problems during their leg, saying: “I actually didn’t realize there was so much drama."
For the veteran Weng it was a first Games gold at last, after skiathlon bronze in 2014 and last weekend. The three other younger skiers also got their first gold.
“Karoline said to me ‘Go, go, go Heidi, you can do it’. So I just tried to stay on my feet so I was safe. I felt really strong, I had really good skis and it was so fun to race with this team and have the gold medal. It was amazing for us,” Weng said.
Continue reading...
