Frida Karlsson withdraws from Tour de Ski

Frida Karlsson withdraws from Tour de Ski

Updated yesterday 17:30 — Published yesterday 09:34

There will be no ride up Alpe Cermis today for former overall winner Frida Karlsson. The Swede has chosen to abandon the Tour de Ski before the classical finale up the slalom hill.

“Now I’m going home,” Karlsson says in a press release. She has been struggling with foot problems.

Karlsson won the Tour de Ski in 2023, but in this year’s edition she has had trouble with her foot. In the video above Karlsson talks about the problems and the expert’s reaction.

Yesterday, after the sprint in which Karlsson reached the quarterfinals, she said among other things:

“I think I’m going to take a break from skis and sit on the bike for a while to change movement patterns and kind of strengthen the tendon again.”

“Can’t quite make it work”

Now the 26-year-old has decided not to expose herself to the strain of the final stage.

“I can’t quite make it work, and we have therefore decided not to load up with the last climb up Alpe Cermis. Especially so close to the Olympics. Now I’m going home, come back and try to regain some confidence in the foot,” she says in the press release.

Before today’s final stage Karlsson sat 12th overall in the Tour de Ski, but she led the climbing cup — meaning she will miss out on a possible €4,000 awarded to the winner of that classification.

“Not her goal in life”

Karlsson’s coach Per Nilsson said prize money was not discussed when Frida made her decision.

“I saw it as well, that some Germans reacted to it. But Frida doesn’t care about that. It’s not her goal in life to race for the money, she races for other reasons,” he told SVT Sport.

Context and related coverage

The item appears in SVT Sport’s Tour de Ski coverage alongside interviews and reports from other competitors and stages. Short interviews and clips linked on the page feature athletes and moments from the Tour — including Moa Ilar, Moa Lundgren, Johanna Hagström, Emil Iversen, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and others — but the story itself focuses on Karlsson’s withdrawal and her foot issue.

Quoted material is from SVT Sport and a press release from Frida Karlsson’s team.