Just over a year after skiing into the history books as Vasaloppet’s youngest-ever winner, Alvar Myhlback has a new title to add to his name.

The Bjursås IK/Lager 157 Ski Team skier is one of three Swedish young skiers named to receive the 2026 Mora-Nisse scholarship, alongside Tove Norgren of Domnarvets GOIF and Eddie Pettersson of Åsarna IK.

Myhlback’s sprint finish to the line in March 2025 made him the youngest Vasaloppet champion in the race’s history, a result that sits alongside two Junior World Championship golds and a World Cup sprint podium already on his record.

Now heading into another promising winter season, he faces a scheduling puzzle that has been on his mind since the calendar came out: the World Championships in Falun run almost the same week as Vasaloppet.

“I’ve obviously thought about that, and I’d like to race in Falun and then Vasaloppet,” Myhlback said in a press release, unwilling to give up either one.

He’s built his career around long-distance skiing and says that remains his priority, but he’s also determined not to narrow his focus too early.

“I’d like to continue combining my focus on both long-distance and traditional (skiing),” he said, describing himself as a confessed ski nerd who still pores over previous race footage looking for small gains.

Alongside him, Norgren and Pettersson round out a scholarship class that captures three different directions a Swedish ski career can take.

Norgren, born in Borlänge in 2007, is coming off three individual gold medals at the Junior National Championships in Bollnäs and a bronze at the Junior World Championships. Rather than stepping away from school, she’s choosing to do both at once, joining Dala Sports Academy while also starting nursing studies at Dalarna University, initially at full course load.

“It’s nice and a real honor to get this scholarship,” she said of a season she called enjoyable and positive throughout. With a year of juniors still ahead of her, she names strength and explosiveness as the areas she wants to sharpen most.

Pettersson, meanwhile, grew up close enough to the Vasaloppet trail in Oxberg that the race was practically in his backyard before moving to Åsarna for high school. His 2026 season included sprint gold at the Junior World Championships in Lillehammer, adding to a roller ski mass start gold from the 2025 Junior World Championships in Latvia, along with national junior and youth titles.

He’s also stepping up to senior level this season, based at Åsarna Ski Academy, where he plans to concentrate on traditional technique and sprint racing.

“I want to ski as well as I can and race World Cup as often as possible. If you get that chance, it can lead to bigger things, and I’d like to win medals at major championships down the line,” he said. The scholarship news reached him mid-session: “I was actually out roller skiing when I found out I would get the scholarship, so that was cool.”

This year’s presentation, the 38th since the scholarship began in 1989, broke from tradition by taking place during Vasaloppet’s summer week in Mora rather than at its usual date, drawing a large crowd for the ceremony and a retrospective on Mora-Nisse’s own career. The winners were selected by a board made up of Erik Eriksson, Åsa Mattsson and Erik Svensson.

The Mora-Nisse Jubilee Fund itself dates back to 1982, established to mark Mora-Nisse’s 65th birthday, and has supported Swedish junior skiers aged 17 to 20 every year since. Past recipients include Charlotte Kalla, Calle Halfvarsson, Stina Nilsson, Jonna Sundling, Ebba Andersson and Frida Karlsson — a list Myhlback, Norgren and Pettersson now join.

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