Therese Johaug remains unbeatable in Lillehammer

Therese Johaug once again performed at a league of her own on the hilly course at the Birkebeineren skistadium in Lillehammer (NOR). Johaug dominates the distance competition these days like no other. After winning todays Skiathlon she adds one more victory to her list which now adds up to 50 wins and a total of 100 podium finishes during the Distance World Cup!

Johaug took off at her own unbeatable pace and set out to gain already almost 1 minute ahead of the other contenders after the Ski exchange.

From the second lap, the chasing group consisted not only consisted of well known distance experts such as Diggins, Weng, Kalla, Jacobsen and Stadlober but also of strong young Swedes Moa Lundgren and Emma Ribom who showed a consistent and strong performance. Diggins, Weng and Kalla set off from the group just before turning into the 4th lap. From that point, Heidi Weng and Jessie Diggins found their pace in Freestyle technique and managed to set off from the others. Charlotte Kalla fell back and was caught up by Krista Pärmäkoski (who had to deal with a broken boot just few minutes before the start!).

Diggins and Weng showed a great collaboration by alternating the pace maker position and pushed each other continuously, trying to shorten the gap to Johaug and enlargen the gap to the upcoming athletes. Diggins took her chances on the last uphill just before turning back into the stadium and zoomed off, finishing with a +1:08.3 minute gap to Johaug and a +10.8 second gap to Weng.

Find all the results here.

Heidi Weng

„It was hard but I tried to go with Jessica and it was hard work. In the last hill she was so much better than me but I take the podium today and I am very happy. I had such good skis today that I was flying in the Downhills. I was a little stiff in the uphill today and I tried to focus to follow Jessica.“

Jessie Diggins

„It was so great to ski with Heidi by going back and forth and making each other faster. We knew that we had a gap to 4th place. My body also was great today and in the last climb I knew that this was my chance to go for it. Last year I was so tired as I was doing a lot of things but this year I rested a lot more and so my body feels like now I can push more than last year.“

Therese Johaug

„I trained a lot before Beitostølen but after that stepped a bit and now I feel like I have more power and the shape is getting better and better. It was fun here in Lillehammer with the long uphills. I focus everytime before the race on the work I have to do, knowing that the other girls will also be very strong."

Listen to the full recordings of the top-3 press conference below.