In the last long hill, Svahn ended up off the track after a duel with Dahlqvist. Svahn lost ground and then slid into the finish barely four seconds after Dahlqvist.
Bronze for Dahlqvist – and no medal for Svahn.
— It’s clear that it’s sad, no one wants to be fourth. Still, it felt like there was something a little better going on than fourth place. You knew the final was going to be messy and it got really messy. Maybe I don’t have the margin that I can handle messing up to win a medal today, Svahn tells TT while she tells TT that she is proud of what she has achieved, where she refers to the journey back from the severe shoulder injury she sustained about two years ago.
— It’s a big trip.
Hope and despair
TT: What do you say about the situation with Maja?
— We were on top of each other twice, quite heavily in the last corner and before the last part of the last climb as well. If we hadn’t messed up, we might have had more of a hold on Emma (Ribom, silver) and Jonna (Sundling, gold). I would have liked to see how strong you would have gone if you hadn’t messed with it. It’s like pussies when you’re arguing with each other. But I’m giving Maja the medal, it’s nothing like that.
Dahlqvist in the mixed zone:
— When I crossed the finish line, I felt that I was tossed a little between hope and despair. I couldn’t really be completely happy about my medal, it was so difficult on the last hill with Linn. At the same time, it’s a sprint, we think alike, we want to get into the same groove and I was a little ahead, really, there’s nothing wrong with the way I do it – but it sucks.
“A lot of feelings”
— There are a lot of emotions, then I think I had more anxiety than she (Svahn) had when I saw her. She said I should stop depressing and that I had hit her anyway, let’s hope it’s true so I can feel a little better.
And Dahlqvist can still be happy about the bronze medal.
“It’s big, it’s not just putting the skis on display and getting a medal,” she says.
For the first time ever, the entire podium turned blue-yellow on the women’s side in a cross-country skiing world championship.
“It’s big, it’s just awesome, but it’s just sad to be on the wrong side,” says Svahn about fourth place.