The 25-year-old Swedish Johanna Hagström made her World Cup debut in January 2017. A year and a half later, she stepped onto the podium for the first time in the World Cup. Since then, she has secured five more podium finishes in the World Cup. However, she is still chasing her first victory in the World Cup.

“I’ve been close quite a few times, so of course, a win is something I hope to achieve during the upcoming season. But I also have the goal of having a season with a consistent and high performance. It will require a bit more planning to achieve this during a season with more competitions than when focusing on peaking for a championship,” says Hagström during the press conference, according to langd.se.

How has training changed for next season compared to previous seasons?

“I’ve worked on becoming stronger in the upper body and building capacity, mainly through a lot of threshold training. I’ve also chosen to do a lot of volume close to the season, which might mean I won’t be in my best shape in Gällivare. But I aim to be at my peak in Ruka,” says Hagström, who has participated in several long-distance roller ski races during the summer.

The Swedish skier finished fourth in the Alliansloppet long-distance race and third in the 15-kilometer race the following day. These results led her to win the youth competition in the World Classic Tour. A week after Alliansloppet, she dominated against tough competition in the Värnamorullen 40-kilometer race.

Read More: Persson and Hagström winners of the Challengers event Värnamorullen 2023

“I must say I’ve become a bit more interested in long-distance races. It fits well with my goal of getting stronger in the upper body. And it’s good training. I also attended a training camp with Team Eksjöhus (where her partner Vebjørn Moen is a member) in Mallorca just over a month ago. We did, among other things, a 30-minute continuous climb. It’s challenging both physically and technically, especially for me, considering my skate skiing background, to sustain 30 minutes in gear 3,” says Hagström, who last season reached the podium in both races she participated in during the opening event in Bruksvallarna. She followed this up by finishing second (behind Emma Ribom) in the World Cup opener in Ruka:

“Sprint will be my main focus again this season. However, I would like to compete more in the distance events in the World Cup. In distance races, you start once and finish once. And when you finish, you’re done; you don’t need to reload and reload,” says Johanna Hagström with a smile.

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