Cross-country-Dominant Karlsson leads Swedish 1-2 in women's skiathlon

TESERO, Italy, Feb 7 : Sweden dominated the women’s skiathlon in the first cross-country skiing race of the Milano Cortina Games, as Frida Karlsson took gold and compatriot Ebba Andersson clinched the silver medal on Saturday.

Norway’s Heidi Weng captured bronze in the race, which features 10km of classic skiing followed by a 10km freestyle.

Karlsson and Andersson raced closely together in the classic portion of the race in a quartet dominated by Scandinavian skiers, but broke away as the freestyle segment got underway. Karlsson finished a full 51 seconds ahead of the other racers, with time to grab the Swedish flag before crossing the finish line.

The win marks the first individual medal for 26-year-old Karlsson, who took home a bronze medal in women's relay at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. 

World Cup leader Jessie Diggins of the United States fell on a sharp downhill turn early in the race in a crash that also took out Norway’s Karoline Simpson-Larsen, and failed to catch back up to the leading packs.  Diggins trailed at 14th in the first half of the race, but made up time on the freestyle race, her strongest discipline, to finish 8th.