Sundling in fine form as she eases to Sprint Freestyle win in Oberhof

Sweden’s Jonna Sundling enjoyed a comfortable win in the women’s Sprint Freestyle at the FIS Cross-Country Skiing 2025/26 World Cup in Oberhof on Saturday, after taking a comfortable lead in qualification and all the way through the finals.

The Olympic and world champion missed the recent Tour de Ski to prioritise her preparations for Milano Cortina, and showed here that she is in peak shape heading towards the Games.

However, she was keen to show her focus on the World Cup before she heads to Italy: “I’m just here now, for today. Of course, I’m thinking a lot about the Olympics and this is for sure a good race for that.”

Germany’s Coletta Rydzek did well to finish second behind Sundling, after struggling with the ice after a brief wobble in the final and having fought back bravely from a fall in her heat. She was followed in third by double World Cup sprint champion and the Olympic silver medalist Maja Dahlqvist (SWE), who also fell in the heats but battled back to finish behind Sundling in their semi-final race.

Rydzek’s determination not to be outdone by the conditions was also helped by competing on home snow, with the crowd rallying behind her to help her claim another second-place finish in the World Cup this season, after also reaching the second step of the podium in Toblach.

“It feels great,” said Rydzek. “It’s cool to be that good in front of a home crowd, for the confidence it helped.”

There was a nervous wait with a long delay heading to the podium, with the men’s medals being presented while the officials deliberated on a possible obstruction involving Dahlqvist. However, the result remained unchanged when the athletes finally walked out for their medals.

Dahlqvist said of the confirmation of her final result of third: “I feel the most happy when I came out of the jury room. I thought my opinion was really clear and they agreed when they saw more videos, so that was good. I think the same incident has been happening a lot today.

“It’s just really bad luck and bad timing. So I think that’s typical racing and when on the course you are turning as well.”

As the result allowed her to gain the red bib she added: “It feels really good, it feels like it’s been a stable season so now I’ll keep it as long as I can.”

Italy’s Iris de Martin Pinter had particularly bad luck in the final after falling at the same corner that caught out Rydzek in the heats, which she was unable to recover from, finishing behind Laura Gimmler (GER) and Moa Ilar (SWE).

This also allowed Sundling to build a substantial lead uphill before Rydzek and Dahlqvist kicked on to take their podium places.

With some of the favourites in Johanna Hagstroem (SWE), who won in Trondheim, and Kristine Stavås Skistad (NOR), who won in Toblach, absent in Germany, along with Falun’s sprint winner Linn Svahn (SWE) dropping out through illness, Sundling made sure to take advantage of the smaller field to have another confident win under her belt before the Olympics.

For all the results from Oberhof, click here