Ebba Andersson won the Jerring Prize before Armand Duplantis.
And it wasn’t even very even.
– I had a hard time believing that, says the cross-country star.
Ahead of this year’s Sports Gala, much of the talk revolved around the fact that several winter athletes had been completely snubbed from nominations. Especially in the Female Athlete of the Year category, many believed that Ebba Andersson, Frida Karlsson and Jonna Sundling deserved nominations, after their fabulous 2023.
Snubbed from nomination
Ebba Andersson and Jonna Sundling both became major medal heroes during the World Cup, and Frida Karlsson was also a smash hit in the World Cup, where she above all won the Tour de Ski. Despite that, there were no nominations for the awards – but for Ebba Andersson it was still an evening she will remember for the rest of her life.
At the end of the gala, it was clear that it was only Ebba Andersson and Armand Duplantis who settled for the Jerring prize, Sweden’s most prestigious sports prize. Ebba Andersson is in between World Cup weekends and was thus not present during the gala, but participated via link and looked almost shocked when Prince Carl Philip read out her name as the winner.
The shock of the detail
But the fact is that it wasn’t even even. Third Daniel Ståhl received 55,534 votes, while Armand Duplantis received 92,865. One Ebba Andersson? Senseless 161,374.
– It was more than I had expected. As I said in my acceptance speech, I had a hard time believing that I could reach a greatness like Duplantis and what he managed to create, says a surprised Ebba Andersson to SVT.
For Ebba Andersson, it was a quiet celebration, but she had time to say the least to be congratulated by her teammates who were at the hotel.
– Some of my teammates threw themselves at me in my hotel room because they were so happy and then after that it was just a matter of going to bed “well then this day was over” and start loading up for training here, she says.
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