Sweden’s women look to ‘seize the day’ in first Cross-Country relay

Sweden arrived at Milano Cortina 2026 with one of their strongest women’s teams and will be hoping that gold will be on the cards for them in the first of the Cross-Country relays, with the Women’s 4 x 7.5km getting underway at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium on Saturday.

Frida Karlsson, who has already won two Olympic gold medals in Italy, said after her Interval Start Free win on Thursday that she had been encouraging her team-mates to “seize the day” and will no doubt be confident going into the team events with all of the Swedish women having won a medal at Milano Cortina.

Linn Svahn, the Olympic champion who made up Sweden’s clean sweep in the Women’s Sprint Classic, joins the line-up with Olympic silver medalists Jonna Sundling and Ebba Andersson with the hope of winning their first gold in the event since Sochi 2014, when it was contested at the shorter distance of 4 x 5km.

“There’s such good energy at our hotel that everyone is sharing, it feels like we’re lifting the whole group,” said Karlsson.

The 26-year-old noted that the feeling has also been quite different to the last Winter Olympic Games, where Sweden’s women’s team won bronze. They have also since won the 2025 world championships no doubt giving them a boost before the Games. “I feel it in my body,” she said. “At Beijing, it felt like I was putting on armour, like I was going to war.

“The feeling was that you erased everything around the competitions, and we were just there as objects who were expected to perform. Then the focus is just on the results. 

“Now, I’m here playing my favourite game, with my best friends. So there’s quite a big difference in feeling and attitude.”

They will be challenged by Norway, who finished behind them at the last world championships but won in 2023. Their team will consist of Kristin Austgulen Fosnaes, Astrid Oeyre Slind, Karoline Simpson-Larsen and Heidi Weng.

While Weng has also made the podium at Milano Cortina with bronze in the Women’s 10km + 10km Skiathlon, Slind and Simpson-Larsen have featured heavily in the Olympic Cross-Country events so far, and all three fell just shy of the medals in the Interval Start Free on Thursday.

Germany, who won silver at Beijing 2022 and bronze at the 2025 world championships, will also likely to be contenders with Laura Gimmler, Katharina Henning Dotzler, Helen Hoffman and Pia Fink making up the team.

Finland’s Johanna Matintalo, Kerttu Niskanen, Vilma Ryytty and Jasmi Joensuu will then be looking for an upset to reach the podium, with Finland having placed fourth at the last two Winter Olympic Games and at the 2025 world championships. Finland last won an Olympic medal in the event with silver at Sochi 2014.

Another nation with high hopes in the relay are USA, whose team includes the four-time Olympic medalist Jessie Diggins, along with Julia Kern, Rosie Brennan and Novie McCabe.

For the full Cross-Country schedule for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games click here.