As many as 9,000 people voted for Jonna Sundling as the winner of the FIS Virtual World Cup on Instagram. The Swedish World Champion triumphed in the poll after defeating Ebba Andersson in the final. The Swedish skiers dominated the voting, with Jonna having to “take the hard road” to victory.

FIS set up the World Cup skiers in a tournament bracket, like in a tennis competition, where two athletes faced off and fans voted over a fairly short period.
As in tennis, the skiers were divided into two halves, and the best from each half met in the final.

You can see the full results here.

The road to the final was extremely tough for Jonna Sundling.
In the first round, she knocked out Norwegian sprinter Ane Appelkvist Stenseth. Then, in the second round, she faced Krista Pärmäkoski, where the Finnish veteran stood no chance.
World Cup overall winner Jessie Diggins was her opponent in the round of 16, but Jonna’s World Championship gold carried more weight.
It was an all-Swedish matchup in the quarterfinals against Frida Karlsson, and once again, the public chose Jonna.

The final two rounds were also against the toughest competition. Jonna eliminated none other than Therese Johaug in the semifinal and then faced Ebba Andersson in the final. In the end, the FIS audience picked Jonna Sundling in the all-Swedish final.

Ebba’s path to the final was also tough, but not quite as grueling as Jonna’s.
In the first round, she knocked out American Alayna Sonnesyn and then eliminated teammate Emma Ribom.
In the round of 16, Ebba beat Austrian Teresa Stadlober, and in the quarterfinals, German skier Victoria Carl.
It was Swedish opposition in both the semifinal and final for Ebba, as she first knocked out Linn Svahn in the semifinal before falling to Jonna in the final.
On her way, Linn Svahn had defeated Julie Myhre, Kerttu Niskanen, Julia Kern, and Nadine Fähndrich.

Among the men, there was little debate. Johannes Høsflot Klæbo was naturally at the top, but on the other side of the bracket, Edvin Anger made his way all the way to the final against Klæbo.
Edvin successively knocked out Dominik Bury, Jens Burman, William Poromaa, Hugo Lapalus, and Erik Valnes — two Swedish teammates had to bow out against the U23 World Cup winner.
Klæbo had a tough route too, beating Albert Kuchler, Håvard Moseby, Iivo Niskanen, Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, and Federico Pellegrino.

The Virtual World Cup proved to be very popular on Instagram, also showing that the Swedish stars have a huge fan base across the ski world.

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