After a three-hour long running and hiking pass from Tesero in Val di Fiemme – where the cross-country skiing events of the Olympic Games 2026 will take place – Frida Karlsson and Linn Svahn reach the restaurant up on Mount Agnello. Despite being deserted, yodeling and "ompa-ompa" music booms out over the spectacular landscape.
We're going all the way up, says Frida Karlsson, and the duo continues up to the top, located 2,370 meters above sea level.
The stars return an hour later for a quick coffee on the restaurant's patio before taking the chairlift down to the nerve road. Karlsson is in her third and final week of high-altitude training in Italy.
I've seen that I've gotten good responses in my high-altitude training, says the 25-year-old later outside the hotel in Lavazé.
Broke away from the national team
Before the 2022-2023 season, Karlsson, Svahn, and Maja Dahlqvist broke away from the national team to focus on their own training plan, but since last season, the trio is back.
There was a big change last season, says Karlsson.
It's about flexibility, being able to train individually or in smaller groups, but just this camp is both the A-national team and the development group on site in Italy.
This is also necessary. Because we need to make sure that knowledge and experiences are passed on, that the younger ones see the level and try to challenge.
Do you feel a sense of responsibility for that?
It would be wrong if you didn't feel like you were a team or part of Ski Sweden. What inspired me? I remember that day when Charlotte Kalla won uphill in 2008 (in Tour de Ski). Then I was suddenly on the same team and saw what she did every day. When you've reached that level yourself, you want to pass it on too.
Retiring at 27?
Karlsson responded with a gigantic breakthrough when she, as a 19-year-old, took gold, silver, and bronze at the World Championship 2019. Since then, it's been seven more World Championship medals and an Olympic bronze, but after the World Championship 2027 in Falun, she has plans to retire as a 27-year-old, which Expressen reported on in the spring.
That's my main plan. When I stand there, it can be extended, but I like to set a goal line, she says five months later.
Setting an endpoint for her career is a motivational factor, she says. A way to live in the present.
I don't want to think that it just keeps rolling on in a hamster wheel. I really want to take advantage of these years and make them golden years.
Last season's overall third in the World Cup will focus primarily on the World Championship in Trondheim in February-March. Then, a certain Therese Johaug – who has taken four Olympic golds and 14 World Championship golds – will be on the starting line. The Norwegian has, after retiring in March 2022, given birth to a daughter, but now the 36-year-old is making a comeback.
The Johaug benchmark
She's so welcome. But where is she? Johaug has been the benchmark for so many years – it's someone we've been chasing all the time. One year, I tailored my training to beat Therese. Then I beat her twice too.
It was the 2021-2022 season when Karlsson won two World Cup races with Johaug as runner-up.
For me, it's always been motivating to win a race, not just make the podium. Then I had to take her down too.
Born: August 10, 1999 (25 years old) in Sollefteå.
Club: Sollefteå Skidor IF.
World Cup debut: February 17, 2019.
Main merits: World Championship gold in relay (2019), World Championship silver on 10 km (2023), World Championship silver in skiathlon (2023), World Championship silver on 10 km (2019), World Championship silver on 10 km (2021), World Championship silver in skiathlon (2021), World Championship bronze in skiathlon (2023), World Championship bronze in relay (2023), World Championship bronze on 30 km (2019), World Championship bronze on 30 km (2021), Olympic bronze in relay (2022), winner of Tour de Ski (2023), overall third in the World Cup (2023-2024). Has won ten individual World Cup races and has an additional 14 podium places.
+ November 29-December 1: Premiere in Ruka, Finland.
+ December 6-8: Lillehammer, Norway.
+ December 13-15: Davos, Switzerland.
+ December 28-January 5: Tour de Ski in Toblach and Val di Fiemme, Italy.
+ January 17-19: Les Rousses, France.
+ January 24-26: Engadin, Switzerland.
+ January 31-February 2: Organizer unclear – Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, has withdrawn.
+ February 14-16: Falun, Sweden.
+ February 26-March 9: World Championship in Trondheim, Norway.
+ March 15-16: Holmenkollen, Norway.
+ March 19: Tallinn, Estonia (sprint only).
+ March 21-23: World Cup final in Lahti, Finland.
