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By Peter Minde
This article will be updated tomorrow with photos. Long day here, sorry, what with the podium ceremony and all. Good problem to have. –Ed.
In a time of 4:03.05, Linn Svahn won decisively in the 2026 Winter Olympics women’s classic sprint in Val di Fiemme earlier Tuesday, capping her return from a concussion and neck injury preceding last year’s world championships in Trondheim. Teammates Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist were second and third. Rounding out the heat in fourth were non-Swedes Julie Bjervig Drivenes of Norway in fourth, Kristine Stavås Skistad of Norway in fifth, and Julia Kern of the U.S. in sixth.
It was another warm day, with the temperature at 39 degrees (3.88 Celsius), though it felt colder on the ground as the afternoon wore on. The snow in the crux corners appeared chewed up before the heats started. Fortunately, the corner that bedeviled so many athletes in the skiathlon didn’t feature today. However, the Zorzi hill, named after Italian ski hero Cristian Zorzi, did appear. With grades up to 19 percent and its crest coming about midway through the 1500-meter loop, the Zorzi would prove to be a decisive feature.
Throughout the day, the snow progressively slowed down. Svahn won the qual with a time of 3:36.21. The first three quarterfinal winners were all a bit over 3:55. The semi finals and the final were all over four minutes. An extra 20 seconds of racing near redline through the heats — would this make a difference for some? And let’s remember, that in track and field, 1500 meters is considered a middle distance event, not a sprint.
Svahn had the fastest time in the qualification. The top three qualifiers were all Swedish: Svahn, Sundling, and Johanna Hagström. All four Americans made the heats, with Jessie Diggins leading the way in 20th, 10.46 seconds behind Svahn. Samantha Smith, Julia Kern, and Lauren Jortberg also made the heats, sneaking in in 26th, 28th, and 30th.
Each of the Swedish women won her quarterfinal. Sundling won the first quarter, ahead of Skistad. Smith and Jortberg finished fourth and sixth here and didn’t advance.
“It was fun,” said Sammy Smith, age 20, after her heat. “Really exciting to have my Olympic debut, and I wish I would have done a few things differently in that heat. I think I tried to make a move on the left side on the [Zorzi] hill.
“If I’d taken it a little bit better of a line, I could have potentially been able to make a bit more time over the top,” she continued. “But it’s a pretty incredible opportunity, and just excited to be out here and racing.”
Despite being in Europe for the World Cup and the Olympics, Smith is still a fulltime student at Stanford University. She’s studying environmental law, material science and engineering, and a creative nonfiction class. There are three other Stanford students competing at this year’s Olympics, and Smith’s soccer teammates — her “main” sport, as far as the Stanford Cardinal is concerned, is soccer — have been really supportive.
“I’ve been nervous for a long time,” Smith said of her Olympic debut. “I was trying just to, you know, put in my head that it’s just another race, another World Cup. Obviously it’s not; it’s an event that happens once every four years, and eight years until the classic sprint race again. It’s pretty special to be out here and have a chance to race. I was super excited that I made it into heats.”
Asked if she’d get another start here during the Games, Smith said, “I don’t know about that. I think I’m the alternate for the team sprint, but regardless, I’ll be out here excited to cheer and basically wishing all my teammates the best.”
Asked if she was surprised to make the heats, Lauren Jortberg said, “Not really, because last week in Goms I was 31st by like a hundredth of a second. That was like an insane moment for me to realize that the Olympics were very much in the conversation for me to make the sprint heats.
“Obviously it was 30th [qualification result], but I think it still wasn’t my best qualifier. So I think there’s still a lot of room to move there, which is cool. And I think had it not been in such a stacked heat, it would have maybe been a slightly different quarterfinal for me. But I’m still really proud of how I skied. I made a couple tactical errors out there, but no, I’m not surprised because I know I’ve been working really hard and Goms really solidified that for me.”
Did it feel like a big win to get to the Olympics? “Even to get to the start is a big win for me,” Jortberg replied. “I didn’t know if I was gonna be starting a race at all, to be honest. I qualified by distance skiing, which is crazy. And so, to even be at the start and just trying to stay calm and focused and just ski high. And it’s been hard to even process, to be honest. I’m still waiting for when it’s gonna hit.”
On the chances of getting a second start: “Probably not,” said Jortberg, much like Smith.
“No, this is my one and only. I’m gonna watch everyone on the team as well as Tony [partner Antoine Cyr] race and train. I’m pretty motivated for the next period of World Cup, so I’m gonna try to [work] a two-week training block rather than the Olympic race plan. It’s hard here because there’s so much going on for training. But thankfully, I’m not going to the race trails unless I’m doing intervals. That’s for sure; it’s way too hard here. And then there’s the Marcialonga trail and then the team went to Passo di Lavazè today as well. I’m hopefully gonna do some exploring. I’ve never been here before, so it’s kind of cool to be somewhere new and have two weeks to be an Olympic tourist now.”
In the second quarterfinal, Nadine Fändrich, SUI, led up the Zorzi climb, only to fade to fifth place. Svahn won just ahead of Caterina Ganz of Italy. In the finishing straight, Kern threw down a strong doublepole to move from sixth to third. She would ultimately advance to the semifinals as a lucky loser.
Amanda Saari of Finland and Laura Gimmler of Germany led at the start of the third quarterfinal. Saari’s teammate Johanna Matintalo controlled the pace over the Zorazi hill as Saari faded. Matintalo won the heat, with Gimmler just nabbing second place from Julie Bjervig Drivenes.
The fourth heat featured Jessie Diggins and yet another Swedish powerhouse, Maja Dahlqvist. Diggins led from the start, pushing the pace. Going up the Zorzi hill, Jasmin Kähärä of Finland and Dahlqvist matched Diggins’s pace. Over the top, Diggins lost steam and fell back to fifth place. Dahlqvist won; Diggins doublepoled to fourth place, but wasn’t quite fast enough to take a lucky loser spot.
Are you okay, Jessie? was the first question put to the American star in the mixed zone.
“Um, no,” was the honest reply.
“I didn’t realize it right after the race, but when I crashed in the skiathlon I bruised my ribs and I hit really hard,” Diggins said. “And luckily adrenaline helped in the race, but then afterwards, you feel it. Doublepoling is just really tough right now, and they just really hurt. So, I’m doing the best I can. I know I’m in good shape, and I really want to make the team proud. I’m just trying the best I can, but yeah, it’s for sure impacting my race. Today, especially with a lot of the doublepole.”
Why ski a classic sprint, when the 10-kilometer skate is likely your best event?
Diggins explained, “I have had good classic experiences in the past and I know I’m in good shape. And when everything comes together, you know, I think if these [ribs] weren’t hurting so much, and then you have really competitive skis, and you’re just feeling good, and things work, like you never know what could happen on sprint days.
“So, I think it would have been silly for me to not race, and also I needed to figure out how to manage this for Thursday. So I’m learning a lot. I hope that my body’s feeling better, but my energy is good. And I’m excited to be here, and I know my shape is good. Honestly, I think I’m in the best shape of my life. So I just need everything to come together in the right moment, but I know there’s a possibility there. So I’m going to keep coming and putting my best foot forward.”
In the last quarter, Hagström and Italy’s Iris de Martin Pinter led to the top of the first climb. Going up the Zorzi, Hagström gapped de Martin. She had a comfortable lead until Coletta Rydzek of Germany stormed down the finishing straight for the win.
The first semifinal adumbrated the final: Kern pitted against Svahn, Sundling, and Skistad. Sundling won over Svahn; Kern and Skistad would advance to the finals as lucky losers. The second semi final had Drivenes, uh, driving the train. She gunned it over the Zorzi and dropped everyone in the descent, winning by 1.69 seconds.
The final, finally. Dahlqvist, Sundling, Svahn, Kern, Drivenes, Skistad. Over the course of the afternoon, the loop continued to break down. From the start, Sundling and Svahn pushed the pace with Skistad in third. By the base of the Zorzi, all three Swedes were at the front. Sundling and Svahn duked it out descending from the Zorzi, and Svahn established herself in the final straight.
Svahn took the win, finally, showing what she is capable of when not snakebitten by the injuries or concussions that have plagued her last several seasons. Sundling was second and Dahlqvist third, completing a Swedish sweep that should not be taken for granted but that was also not particularly surprising. The two Norwegians, Drivenes and Skistad, followed in fourth and fifth.
Kern, who had perhaps burned most of her matches for the day just to reach the final, finished sixth. It was a career-best Olympic result by a long shot, well outpacing her 18th in the sprint in Beijing. It is tied for the best women’s Olympic classic sprint result; Diggins finished sixth in the final in Pyeongchang in 2018.
“First off, Ben skied amazing, and he’s had me crying all afternoon now,” Kern said afterwards of her day. “I’m so incredibly proud of him and the whole team are. Ben skied so smart and so strong. It was just really, really special to be there to celebrate that with him and see it all come together because he’s had his fair share of adversity, and just amazing for him to show up and put it all together at the right time.”
Of her own race, Kern said, “I had great kick and really good glide coming into the stadium, which was really important. And then in terms for my result, I am really happy with today. It’s been a challenging season. I haven’t made it out of the quarterfinals this year. So to make it to the finals of the Olympics is a huge accomplishment, and I’m really proud of it because I fought really hard today.
“My qualifier didn’t go as well as planned, but it was enough to qualify, and I always get stronger in the rounds. And I had really good skis and played to my strategy and knew I had a strong finish and really like never gave up and was hanging really tough when I was pretty tired.
“And so I went the lucky loser route today, which was my strategy, and that obviously has a cost. So come the final, I was completely spent, but I didn’t know it. And I really gave it my all, tried to be in the mix, and I had left everything on the course to get to the final. I don’t have any regrets about that. I think that’s what I needed to do to get there. And that’s where I’m skiing right now.
“And honestly, I skied better than I have this season. And I felt a lot better. So yeah, I think this year has been just kind of a medium season. Like no standout results, no like really bad results. I’m distance skiing consistently well. I’m sprinting not that well. And so for today to end up sixth, I am really proud of it. I think it’s a huge accomplishment. And our staff absolutely crushed it. They were screaming their hearts out.
“We had so many American fans, it was amazing, like all around the course. And our coaches and our techs worked really hard, and it was a really early morning for them. So big props to them. [I heard from one American tech that they had arrived at the venue shortly after 4 a.m. today. –Ed.]
I think there’s just a lot of adversity that every athlete goes through it and It is really sweet when it pays off. And we had all four women in the heats, which was also really exciting. Lauren and Sammy’s first Olympics in the heats, and they skied so strong. And so did our guys. I mean, JC in the semifinals. Just so many good things. And I think this is going to give us some really good momentum into the races to come, which I’m really excited about.
“I think we’re going to celebrate tonight and see what Ben wants. Maybe it’s a knitting party. Who knows? That could be kind of relaxing after all of the amped upness. Like all of us were crying after the race. And yeah, kind of try to recharge for the races to come.
Racing continues Thursday with the women’s 10-kilometer interval-start skate. Stay tuned.
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