Johanna Hagström finished third in the classic sprint on the OS course in Val di Fiemme, bolstering her demand to compete in the OS sprint in a month. Having won the season's only previous classic sprint, she believes her performances qualify her for one of Sweden's four spots. Meanwhile, Finnish skier Jasmi Joensuu claimed her first World Cup victory.
In Val di Fiemme, on the penultimate stage of the Tour de Ski, a classic sprint was held on the same course as the OS sprint scheduled for February 10 in Italy. With 38 days until the Olympics, Johanna Hagström secured third place, just under two seconds behind winner Jasmi Joensuu of Finland. Joensuu, who won by 44 hundredths over Switzerland's Nadine Fähndrich, expressed her joy: 'It means a lot of course. Now I've shown I can win. I've often been told I'm not strong enough in finals, so this shows my hard work has paid off.'
Hagström, winner of the season's only prior classic sprint, is vying for one of four Swedish OS starting spots. 'Well, you can't have much better prerequisites for the OS. Now I really think I've shown I should get to race the OS sprint here. If I don't get to, I won't understand it,' she says. Maja Dahlqvist finished fourth in the final, while Moa Ilar was disqualified in the semifinal after an incident: 'A bit disappointing. It felt sour to get that news.'
In the men's race, Swedish underdog Anton Grahn took a surprising third place, just three hundredths off second. The 21-year-old from Jönköping, U23 sprint world champion last year, dreams of OS gold: 'I dream of taking OS gold. And it doesn't feel too far away.' Norway's Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won convincingly. Alvar Myhlback broke a pole in the quarterfinal, and Edvin Anger failed to advance.
USA's Jessie Diggins leads the Tour de Ski by a large margin, 1 minute 19 seconds ahead of Joensuu and 1 minute 38 seconds ahead of Ilar, before the final climb on Alpe Cermis.
