The 24-year-old from Hedemora was nearly the best in the world – then everything collapsed. Now, a Norwegian coaching legend will take over Sweden’s biggest star, promising to make Klæbo’s rival a serious threat.

“I had high expectations of succeeding after the preseason,” says Edvin Anger to Expressen.

The Swedish cross-country talent broke through in the 2024/2025 season. He secured his first World Cup victories, won the U23 World Cup by a wide margin, and finished second in the overall World Cup standings – only behind Johannes Høsflot Klæbo. 

He also earned two bronze medals at the World Championships in Trondheim: in the team sprint and relay. This past season (2025/2026), the star from Hedemora aimed to top that. 

However, that did not happen. 

The downturn began as early as November, and the season turned into a nearly continuous series of disappointments. The Olympics were the biggest letdown: a 19th place in the sprint was his best individual result. After that, Anger hardly raced at all and considered breaking away from the national team. 

“When everything started going wrong, it became tough mentally. I dug myself deeper and deeper,” he says. 

The story continues below.

Now, the 24-year-old is back from vacation and extremely eager for revenge. In the meantime, the Swedish men’s national team has also acquired a new head coach: Egil Kristiansen. 

Also Read: Swedish cross-country skiing teams for season 2026/2027

Kristiansen to be personal coach

The Norwegian coaching legend will take primary responsibility for the Swedish jewel. 

“I will be responsible for Edvin,” he confirms. 

Kristiansen also indicates that changes may be on the horizon. Anger has so far excelled in sprinting, but the Norwegian believes that with the right training, the Swede can also compete in other disciplines.  

“I believe that even sprinters need to develop an aerobic capacity to sustain an entire sprint competition. Many distance runners have started as good sprinters,” says Kristiansen, who has results to back this up. 

Bringing Sweden to the World stage

The Norwegian coaching legend has taken two Norwegian national teams from being also-rans to dominating internationally. First, he took over the Norwegian women’s cross-country team in 2006 and led them until 2016. Then he coached the Norwegian men’s biathlon team from 2016 to 2026. 

Now, he aims to do the same with the Swedish men’s national team. He is excited about the challenge. 

“I am quite sure that Swedish men’s cross-country skiing… What was performed at the Olympics (this year) is not representative. It is absolutely possible to do much, much better than that. I see it as a significant challenge, and I want to work with that type of athletes,” Kristiansen says in the podcast Urspår.

Specifically, Kristiansen will address training planning in the pre-season. 

“Some were very good until September/October, but missed a bit on hard training, and thus when the season started, they were actually out of form.”

In the long run, the goal is to bring the Swedes to the top. He has experience with this and sees several similarities with previous projects. 

“I see it this way. It was exactly the same when I took over the biathlon team. We had very poor results and a national team that was scattered in too many directions in 2016. We took one medal in our first World Championship in Hochfilzen (in 2017). It wasn’t until 2018 that things started to click. I see that we are a bit in the same situation here, so it may take some time.” 

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