Norway wins dramatic women’s relay after shock fall for Sweden

Heidi Weng crossed the line to take gold for Norway at Milano Cortina 2026 as difficult conditions led to chaos on the course with Ebba Andersson suffering two big falls, losing a ski and over a minute of time halfway through the Women’s 4 x 7.5km at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium on Saturday.

After falling two minutes after the exchange from Linn Svahn to the second leg, Andersson fell again, this time catching her ski on a lump of ice and doing a full front somersault over her skis, losing one with broken binding leading her to desperately carry on with one ski while the team scrambled to provide her with a replacement.

Double Olympic champion Frida Karlsson did well to claw back from their fall to eighth position and make up from a 1 minute 18.4 seconds deficit to get into fourth before handing over to sprint specialist Jonna Sundling, who brought them back up to win the silver medal behind Weng and her team-mates Kristin Austgulen Fosnaes, Astrid Oeyre Slind, Karoline Simpson-Larsen.

Finland, who have finished in fourth at the last two Winter Olympic Games and at the 2025 world championships, celebrated bronze as Jasmi Joensuu crossed the line with team-mates Johanna Matintalo, Kerttu Niskanen and Vilma Ryytty happy to gain a first Olympic medal in this event since Sochi 2014 where Finland won silver.

Andersson said of the team’s disappointment: “We share victories and also when it’s not going that well. Today was one of those days.”

Slind, who kept up behind Andersson to be able to take the lead after the Swede’s first fall, said: “I actually didn’t realise there was so much drama. They were just ahead of us, but I wasn’t paying much attention.

“I could see we had a really good gap, so we hoped for the gold already. We are so proud.”  

“It’s a great feeling,” Joensuu said of Finland’s bronze. “We’ve been fourth as a team many times, and I’ve lost in the last 100m many times, so today I wanted to make sure we don’t need to battle for that.”

Difficult conditions with drizzling rain created early drama in the first leg with Ellen Soehol Lie (AUS), Xeniya Shalygina (KAZ), Patricija Eiduka (LAT) and Anja Mandeljc (SLO) all falling at the first corner.  

Karlsson said the rain suited her team and they were confident of another win, with Svahn leading for the majority of the first leg, before handing over a seven-second lead to Ebba Andersson over Italy and Norway.

Slind then closed gap to Andersson but the Swede’s first fall just after the first handover resulted in Norway and Italy overtaking. Andersson finally settled on the second loop to regain the chase for gold until her second fall which proved disastrous for Sweden’s gold medal hopes.

Germany, who finished fourth ahead of USA, will be disappointed to have finished outside of the medals having won silver at Beijing 2022 and bronze at the 2025 world championships.

For results of the the Women’s 4 x 7.5km click here. For the full Cross-Country schedule for the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games click here.