On Saturday, something happened that has only happened once before this World Cup season: A non-Swedish skier won a women’s sprint in the World Cup, when Kristine Stavås Skistad won Canmore’s freestyle sprint – whereupon she teased the Swedes with a blow kiss after she crossed the finish line.
But today, order was restored. In the classic sprint in Canmore, four Swedish women were on the starting line, against the aforementioned Skistad and the Finnish Kerttu Niskanen.
Svahn pulled away at the end
Jonna Sundling took the early lead, with Linn Svahn hot on her heels, while Kristine Stavå’s Skistad ended up a bit behind but caught up with the Swedes just before the race.
As they neared the finish, Svahn pulled away – and took his sixth individual World Cup win of the season. And she celebrated in a similar way to Skistad, when she made a kiss-like gesture with her hands.
– I was a bit of an adrenaline rush, but I thought about it before, that “I can’t cross the finish line and just do it comfortably”. It wasn’t aimed at anyone, but it was a kiss, she tells Viaplay with a smile.
– That was nice! There is nothing nicer than winning, especially since things didn’t go quite the way you wanted before.
Sundling: “Like a win”
Sundling was finally third, when Skistad was judged second after the goal photo. Niskanen was fourth, with Maja Dahlqvist fifth and Emma Ribom sixth.
– It feels a bit like a win, says Sundling about his third place.