In early March 2023, Moa Lundgren secured the overall victory in the Scandinavian Cup. The victory meant she had a free place in the World Cup until Christmas.

The 26-year-old put in a series of solid performances during the ‘free spot’ period, making the final at the World Cup sprint in Östersund. And the week before, she skied a leg when the Swedish women’s team won the relay in Gällivare.

“Looking back on the season, I have to say that the relay in Gällivare was one of the highlights. Less than 24 hours earlier, I was 1.41 behind Jessie Diggins in the 10km race (where she finished 19th). At the start of the relay, I was less than ten seconds behind Diggins. It was cool to be there and break that relay curse (the Swedish team took the first women’s World Cup victory in 14 years),” says Lundgren to Langd.se.

After Christmas, Lundgren continued to perform well in World Cup races. The highlights were double semi-final places in the World Cup sprints in Drammen and Falun. She also managed to finish fourth and sixth in the Ski Classics races in Orsa Grönklitt, plus she made it onto the podium in third place at Tjejvasan.

However, the competition in the Swedish national team is notoriously challenging. Moa Lundgren was offered a place in the Swedish development team Team Bauhaus but chose to decline:

“I have had a feeling that I want to take care of the whole program on my own, from ‘start to finish’ of the season. I have been involved in national team activities since I joined the junior national team in my second or third year as a junior. Now I feel I’m ready to try something new,” says Lundgren.

Also Read: Swedish cross-country skiing teams for the season 2024/2025

What will be the significant differences in your approach?

“I will prioritize my development; I want to create more space and have a lot of systematics and measurement points around my reference sessions at home and work from them. Then, if you are on the national team, you must think about training a few days before and after a camp. This means that many sessions “disappear.” Now I can have more continuity at home. At the same time, I have appreciated and been challenged by being at the camps.”

Is training partners, or the lack thereof, the big challenge now?

“There is a nice advantage that I am a woman, so I will train with my boyfriend Gustav (Kvarnbrink, elite skier in Åsarna), where I know how many percent there is usually a difference between us in training. In addition, there are many other club friends I can train and spar with. Then I won’t get to meet the world’s best ladies as continuously as before, but I wouldn’t have gotten that if I had chosen to accept Team Bauhaus,” says Lundgren.

But what will be the big difference if you compare this base season with the last one?

“In the last base season, I have focused more on my double poling and the capacity to keep high speed on flatter parts. That’s not where I’m losing, but now it’s more about working on creating speed uphill. So that will be something I will work on. Then, I want to compete more during the base period. This is both true for running and roller skiing.”

What races do you have in mind?

“Everything is not nailed down. Competing in the summer is something I’ve missed, but it’s not been easy when I’ve been away so much at camp. Now, I would like to run Lidingöloppets 15km (Moa is a solid runner and has two victories at the race). It’s a good status check to see how I am doing. And it’s usually a ‘last warm weekend’ before it gets rainy and fall. Then Toppidrettsveka and Alliansloppet are interesting competitions that I would like to race. But as I said, I still need to nail the plan.”

You impressed in the long-distance races you did last winter. Would it be possible for you to start doing them full-time?

“It was really nice. I had a great weekend with Team Ragde Charge in Orsa and enjoyed Tjejvasan. But my first focus will be traditional (cross-country skiing); at the same time, I’m eager to do longer races.”

But have you been asked to join a Pro Team in Ski Classics?

“Yes, I have. It has been an honor, and I have received great praise. But my main goal this winter is the World Championships in Trondheim. It would be great to run the 50km race at the World Championships,” concludes Moa Lundgren.

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