Cross-country skiing : exceptional World Championships for Jonna Sundling
The Swedish women’s national team won it all at the World Championships in Trondheim (Norway), completing an incredible grand slam. Jonna Sundling was unstoppable with three gold medals – in the sprint, the team sprint and the relay – and a bronze medal in the skiathlon. The 30-year-old cross-country skier looked back on her splendid World Championships on Norwegian soil.
“I’m very happy and very proud,” the Swede toldExpressen. ” I found my form and, once there [in Trondheim, editor’s note], everything fell into place.”
In the sprint, she won her fourth consecutive sprint gold medal, after Olympic gold in Beijing (China) 2022 and the World Championships in Oberstdorf (Germany) 2021 and Planica (Slovenia) 2023. It is this moment that she considers to be the strongest, ahead of her crazy comeback on the relay.
“The relay is an incredibly special memory, but if I had to choose, I’d probably go for the sprint. The fact that I could do it again. Because it’s not something you can take for granted.”
Despite her exceptional results, the Scandinavian wanted more and has some regrets. In the skiathlon, Jonna Sundling was in contact with the leading group until the last lap, when she crashed in a bend, taking Heid Weng with her. She then took third place without being able to fight for victory.
“It all happened so quickly,” recalls Sundling. “Suddenly, I was lying down and I felt someone fall on top of me. I don’t know what I could have done differently. Of course, I could have been more passive in the turn, but that’s not how I ski, I want to be aggressive. I understand that Heidi was disappointed, but I didn’t fall on purpose, I didn’t want to spoil anything for both of us”, she explains.
The Swede’s disappointment was immediately apparent after the race. She left the mixed zone in tears, affected by her fall, but above all by the realisation that gold was within her grasp.
” The worst thing is that I felt it could have gone a lot better,” she said. But, looking back, even this bronze medal seems to have been a great success: “Today, I feel a sincere joy for this medal. But no, I couldn’t do it just after the race”, she concludes.
Read also
- Cross-country skiing | “The exceptional comeback”, “The feat”, “The incredible comeback”: a victory in the Trondheim Worlds women’s relay has the Swedish press buzzing after Jonna Sundling’s performance
- Cross-country skiing | Trondheim: after a stunning comeback, Sweden’s Emma Ribom, Frida Karlsson, Ebba Andersson and Jonna Sundling win gold in the World Championship relay
- Cross-country skiing | Trondheim: in a demonstration, Jonna Sundling becomes world sprint skateboard champion for the third time in a row
- Cross-country skiing | Trondheim: Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist win the classic sprint team at the Worlds, Mélissa Gal and Léna Quintin come ninth
- Cross-country skiing | Trondheim Worlds: a fall that could have been costly for Jonna Sundling, bronze medallist in the skiathlon
