Sweden’s two-time cross-country skiing Olympic champion Frida Karlsson has announced that she wants to break new ground in the 2026/27 season. Before that, the 26-year-old wants to try her luck in another sport.
For several years Frida Karlsson has been one of the best and most successful cross-country skiers in the world. However, the Swede celebrated her successes almost exclusively on long distances. Now she has announced in an “Expressen” interview that she will soon also be at the forefront of sprint races.
“I’d like to find something new to try. That’s exactly what drives me,” she said of her possible move to the sprint distance. Due to persistent heel problems, she had avoided explosive sprints for a long time, “but now my heel feels better than in recent years.” Sprint starts are therefore “tempting” for her again, as Karlsson admitted.
“It would be a new challenge and I’m excited to try to achieve something. However, I don’t know what I should dare to aim for,” the 26-year-old couldn’t and didn’t want to set herself any goals for her sprint starts.
Cross-country skiing star Karlsson wants to test out a new sport
What Karlsson has in mind when she plans: winning the overall World Cup, which is still missing from her trophy collection. “In a dream world I would have taken part in all the World Cup races and fought for the overall World Cup.” Simply being able to run every race of the season means “freedom” for her. To achieve this, however, she must put her sprint plan into action.
The double Olympic champion is currently pursuing completely different plans during the summer break. Here she wants to try her luck in another sport, trail running. Her supplier adidas has its own team for which Karlsson could theoretically start. But she still left it open whether this would happen.
Negotiations with her physio about this are currently underway, the Swede joked. The whole plan hasn’t been thought through yet. “But I would like to feel some excitement before the season preparation,” she flirted with starting one of the cross-country races over 60 kilometers and more.
