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Sweden's gold medallist Frida Karlsson celebrates with Sweden's flag during the Women's Cross-Country Skiing 10km Interval Start Free event at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium of the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Daniel Karmann/dpa
Frida Karlsson beat Ebba Andersson for the second time in another one-two as Sweden continued to dominate women's cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics on Thursday.
Saying she received some valuable advice from Norwegian great Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Karlsson was a class apart in the day's 10 kilometres freestyle interval start race.
She won with a huge margin of 46.6 seconds ahead of the discipline's world champion Andersson. Retirement-bound American Jessica Diggins earned bronze with a deficit of 49.7 seconds despite cruised ribs and now has four medals from three Games.
Karlsson said she "totally" surprised herself with the winning margin.
“I was trying to be really calm in the beginning and find the rhythm in the skiing, and I was like, ‘now I can pull the breaks off’ and just go with what I had," she said.
Andersson said she struggled in the later stages but that she was also "really impressed with the speed Frida had out in the tracks.”
Diggins said: "I’m the happiest bronze medallist in the world. I’m so grateful for everyone getting me here. It’s taken a serious team effort to get to the start line and a lot of help once I got to the finish line, because I’ve been in a lot of pain."
Sweden's women have picked up seven of the nine medals on offer so far in Tesero. Karlsson beat Andersson for skiathlon gold and Linn Svahn led a Swedish sprint podium sweep in the previous races.
Karlsson has been among the elite for many years with 14 World Cup victories to her name. Her first major individual title after many minor medals finally came at last year's worlds in the 50km and she now also got her first Olympic golds after a previous relay bronze.
Karlsson credited talking to Klæbo who swept all six golds at last year's worlds and also already has two in Milan/Cortina for a career tally of seven. He is expected to break the current Winter Games gold medal record which stands at eight.
“He was really clear with me on how to set the pace and I tried to listen to him. So I will thank him for that," Karlsson said.
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Sweden's Frida Karlsson competes during the Women's Cross-Country Skiing 10km Interval Start Free event at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Daniel Karmann/dpa
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Sweden's Frida Karlsson competes during the Women's Cross-Country Skiing 10km Interval Start Free event at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. Daniel Karmann/dpa
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