Sweden’s Ebba Andersson makes a miraculous recovery and wins the silver medal after an epic elimination
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No two Olympic medals are achieved in the same way.
Sweden had a chance at a gold medal in the women’s 4×7.5 kilometer relay, but Ebba Andersson crashed hard. When Andersson got up, he realized he had lost his right ski and couldn’t put it back on.
She then plodded on one ski and carried the other under her arm as she waited for Sweden’s ski technician to catch up with a new ski. The hectic scene unfolded as Andersson attempted to maintain Sweden’s place on the podium.
To make matters worse, the ski technician, while running to catch up with Andersson, also fell into the snow to further delay them.
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Ebba Andersson tags her teammate Frida Karlsson, right, during the women’s 4×7.5 kilometer cross-country skiing relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Tesero, Italy, on February 14, 2026. (Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP Photo)
“He’s fallen again,” BBC commentator Rob Walker said of the mishap, via the New York Post. “Absolute disaster and he’s lost a ski. He’s doing everything he can to get it back.
“What a nightmare this has turned out to be for the Swede. Everything has gone very well so far. Frida Karlsson (Andersson’s teammate) barely dares to look.”
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Frida Karlsson leaves the field after completing her leg of the women’s 4×7.5 kilometer cross-country skiing relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Tesero, Italy, on February 14, 2026. (Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)
“And what an effort on Andersson’s part. She’s running. She’s running with her ski under her arm. Desperate to give Karlsson at least something to aim for.”
The accident and subsequent time without skiing left Sweden in seventh place, but they recovered to finish second and claim a silver medal. Norway beat Sweden by 50.9 seconds and finished with a time of 1:15:44.8 to secure the gold medal.
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Heidi Weng celebrates after winning the gold medal in the women’s 4×7.5 kilometer cross-country skiing relay at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Tesero, Italy, on February 14, 2026. (Matthias Schrader/AP Photo)
Despite recovering enough to earn a silver medal, Andersson was distraught over the accident.
“My body is fine, but my heart is not,” Andersson said. “I can’t blame anyone but myself. I didn’t perform well enough at the time. Then we had the worst possible bad luck with the broken ski. It was mainly panic and chaos throughout the stage.”
The News contributed to this report.
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Ryan Canfield is a digital production assistant for News Digital.