Team Sprint (Freestyle), Women

Sweden had swept the medals in the women’s individual sprint only eight days before, so the team of Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist were the clear favorites, although the sprint gold medalist, Linn Svahn was not chosen for this event. Sundling and Dahlqvist had won the event at the 2025 World Championships.

Sundling / Dahlqvist established their dominance in the qualifying round, winning by almost 15 seconds over Finland, followed by Canada, Switzerland, and Norway. The final was six legs of the sprint course, three by each of the two team skiiers. Sundling started out the race with the fastest opening leg just ahead of American Jessie Diggins, but the USA team, also with Julia Kern, would eventually finish only fifth, although they had been silver medalists at the 2025 Worlds.

On the second leg Dahlqvist skied only a desultory time, placing 14th of the 15 skiiers, and Finland took over the lead, with Sweden in second, but Sundling again posted the fastest third leg, as she would do on her final leg, and moved Sweden back into a lead they would not relinquish. Dahlqvist was not at her best and on the sixth and final leg, she was challenged by Swiss skier Nadine Fähndrich, who skied the fastest final leg, and brought Switzerland and she and Nadja Kälin home for the silver medal. Behind them the German team of Laura Gimmler and Coletta Rydzek took the bronze medal.

The qualifying round had seen an extra, unannounced finisher. On the finishing straight, a 2-year-old Czechian wolfdog named Nazgûl escaped from its nearby kennel and ran down to cross the line just behind Greek skier Konstantina Charalampidou, who later said, “He followed the camera on the finishing straight, was cute, and thankfully didn’t disrupt the race. It was funny. He made me forget about the race, because it wasn’t good. Thanks to him, I’m famous now, so I have to thank him.” Nazgûl was later reunited with his owners, Alice and Enrico Varesco. Although a finish photo was recorded for him, no official time was announced, possibly because Nazgûl was a male dog in a female race.