Ebba Andersson turns 25 on July 10, and the big goal of the upcoming winter is the Planica 2023, her fourth World Championships. She made her Worlds’ debut in Lathi 2017, before turning 20, and has never left a championship without a medal. 

During the past winter, there was a relay medal for Andersson when she and the Swedish team took bronze at the Olympic relay in Beijing. In the individual Olympic races, Ebba Andersson finished sixth, eighth and tenth. One of the season’s highlights was the Tour de Ski, where she finished second overall.

“I think I went to got a little speed on things towards the end of the season, but before that, it was a bit more heavy work. We have concluded that the total load with a lot of time at high altitude became a bit too tough. I invested a lot of time at high altitude, and it is important to ensure that it is not “too much,” says Ebba Andersson to Langd.se at the national team’s kick-off meeting in Falun in early June.

Ebba recently started training again after a period of illness after the season.

“In previous seasons, I have almost felt that I “hurried” between seasons. Now the illness after the season meant I almost had to take a longer break. This has meant that the body has not responded as well from the start of the training, but I think it was useful for me to take a break from it. I am really motivated to go into the coming season,” says Ebba Andersson. However, she showed that the form was not as meager as she wanted to suggest when she won the Smart Energy Summer Cup premiere at Lugnet on rollerskis.

For the coming season, Ebba Andersson has chosen not to make any significant training changes. Still, the big difference is that the camp with the national team will, in principle, be exclusively in Sweden. The exception is a camp in the upcoming World Championships location in Planica:

“It is the World Championships that is the winter’s biggest goal. Then I want to perform really good skiing. How good should it be? Yes, the plan is better than anyone else,” she says emphatically.

One difference compared to recent seasons is that there will be no Therese Johaug on the starting line. As you know, Johaug has in many of the mass start races chosen an offensive tactic and basically hit full speed from, if not from the start, then at least very early in the races:

“Therese has had a way of setting up her races where it was a lot about going hard early in the races. Now it will be slightly different, and I think more people will be involved and take care of the tempo. There is a little uncertainty about how it will develop now, and it is a moment of tension,” says Andersson.

Another change is that women and men will compete at the same distances. Ebba Andersson is in favor of the decision but would still have liked a partly different approach:

“I like that we compete at the same distances, but I do not understand why we should race between 10, 20, and 50km. I think it should be possible to vary more. Why not race 10 sometimes, 15 some other time, and then 20 and 30 to get even more variety, concludes Ebba Andersson.