Andersson dominates to become first Olympic women’s 50km champion

Sweden’s Ebba Andersson stormed ahead in the last 20km to win her first individual Olympic gold and become the first Olympic Women’s 50km Mass Start Classic champion in the final Cross-Country race of Milano Cortina 2026 at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium on Sunday.

Andersson finished in 2 hours 16 minutes and 28.2 seconds with Norway’s Heidi Weng 2:15.3 minutes behind in silver, after making her break from Weng at the 30km mark after suffering a fall shortly before in the ski change.

Switzerland’s Nadja Kaelin then broke away from the chasing group in the final few kilometers to take bronze, denying USA’s Jessie Diggins a fairytale podium as she ended the race in fifth in her final Olympics before she retires at the end of the season. Kristin Austgulen Fosnaes (NOR) also finished just outside of the medals in fourth.

“I have dreamt about this day for a long time now it’s almost unbelievable that everything went as planned,” said Andersson. On whether she was worried she would never win an Olympic gold she added: “No. I’ve had the trust the whole time.”

After her disastrous falls in the Women’s 4 x 7.5km Relay which cost her team gold, Andersson said: “The point with sports is sometimes you lose and sometimes you win. It’s about ups and downs and you just need to be patient and trust the process, and that’s what I have done the last week.”

Kaelin, who finished 6:41.5 minutes behind Weng, said after breaking away from the chasing group to claim bronze: “I was channelling [Johannes] Klaebo [NOR]. In the last lap I felt the tempo wasn’t so high and I tried to save some energy and then stretch out the field a bit before the hill because you never know how strong the others are.

With the medal presentation being held at the Closing Ceremony at the Verona Arena, Kaelin also noted a change of plans. “It’s crazy. I didn’t think I would get a medal and now I have two. We were thinking about going home straight after the race but now I guess we are going to Verona.”

Weng, who was chasing her first individual gold after winning Olympic relay gold last week and having two bronze medals to her name, said: “I feel very happy. I had very good skis in the first part and then I changed, and I felt like I didn’t have so much power left.

“But in the [first] four laps I felt very strong and even after I changed the skis, I had a big gap to the others and I just tried to keep that. It was amazing.”

Before the race had even begun there were several surprises with Swedish favourite Frida Karlsson pulling out due to illness, along with her team-mate Jonna Sundling who decided an hour before the race not to compete due to a head cold. France’s Julie Pierrel and Germany’s Katherine Sauerbrey also did not start the race.

Another big name in Oeyre Astrid Slind dropped out 10km into the race after struggling with slippage of her skis. “There are really steep hills here, and you need really good grip to be able to race fast enough,” said 38-year-old Slind. “Maybe I was a little bit too tired, so I didn’t have the power to get the best out of my skis.

“It would be so much bigger to have one of those medals and I hoped that this would be the day. But we got the gold in the relay, and I'm really happy that I can bring a gold medal from the Olympics back home.

“I’m probably too old for the next Olympics. I think the odds are retirement, but we’ll see.”

The race therefore became a battle for bronze in the final 20km, with a group of five chasers in Diggins, Teresa Stadlober (AUT), Kerttu Niskanen (FIN), Fosnaes and Kaelin, before Poland’s 25-year-old Eliza Ruck-Machalek attempted to catch them in the final laps but slipped in the last few kilometers which prevented her from joining the fight.

For results of the Women’s Mass Start Classic click here.

Up Next: The FIS Cross-County Ski World Cup season will resume in Falun, Sweden on 28 February.