Andersson clinches 2025 Trondheim treble with 10K win

Ebba Andersson (SWE) secured her first victory of the FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup season and fourth major success in Trondheim, Norway by winning the 10km Interval Start Freestyle on Sunday.

After finishing third on Saturday's Skiathlon for her first podium of the campaign, the 28-year-old proved that 10K is her favourite race: seven of her individual World Cup triumphs have now come over this distance. She is also the 10K world champion, a title won on this track earlier this year, when she also claimed the Skiathlon crown.

Form and fitness permitting, she will surely be among the favourites for both races at the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Winter Games in February. The cross-country skiing will take place at Val di Fiemme, where Andersson claimed her first World Cup victory - also over 10K - in 2021.

As there had been on days one and two of this, the second World Cup event of the season, there were perfect conditions in Trondheim on Sunday, with packed snow, freezing temperatures and the freestyle format meaning grip nor speed should be a problem for the skiers.

Two laps of the 5km course offers the competitors very little respite, with a long climb out of the stadium followed by a gradual overall descent littered with smaller climbs.

This suited Andersson's relentless style. By the end of the first lap (5K), she was two seconds faster than Jessie Diggins (USA), who won the skiathlon on Saturday and 3.5s ahead of Jonna Sundling (SWE), who made a flying start having endured a disappointing weekend. The world and Olympic sprint champion fell in her favourite race on Friday and was well off the pace in Saturday's 20km, another distance over which she has enjoyed success.

But she faded badly on the second lap of the 10km Freestyle as compatriot Andersson began to assert her control. By the next checkpoint, 6.9km, she held a 12.6s over Diggins and was 14s faster than Sundling.

By this point, though, another strong Swede, Moa Ilar, was making her move. Four days older than Andersson, Ilar was 8.9s slower than her compatriot at the halfway point. By the 6.9km checkpoint it was down to 6s, as Diggins and Sundling began to fade.

At the final marker, 9.2km, Ilar had closed the gap to just 1.6s. Could she snatch her third World Cup victory from her more decorated teammate? Not quite. Andersson found an extra gear to increase the gap to two seconds by the finish line to secure the ninth victory of her World Cup career.

Ilar's second place was just her fifth individual World Cup podium and second of the season after she came third in the 10km Classic in Ruka, Finland last week.

Diggins was a further 14.5s back, holding off Sundling and Oeyre Astrid Slind (NOR) for her third podium of the season.

Andersson said: "I tried to increase the pace on the second lap, because I know from last time we were here that it's sometimes close for podium places, especially for the win, so I just tried to go as fast as I could, even on the flat parts.

"I knew I had some seconds on Moa, but I also knew that the last part of the race is something that suits her really well so I knew that I just had to keep pushing to the very end.

As the World Cup heads to Davos next weekend, things are starting to take shape in the overall standings. Diggins leads on 512 points as she bids to bow out of competitive action with a third Crystal Globe in a row. Ilar is just 17 points behind in second place.

For the full 2025/26 FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup schedule, click here

For the full results from Trondheim, click here