Finland secured bronze in the women\u2019s 4×7.5km cross-country relay at the Milan\u2013Cortina Winter Olympics, ending a 12-year wait for an Olympic medal in the event.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The quartet of Johanna Matintalo, Kerttu Niskanen, Vilma Ryytty and Jasmi Joensuu finished third in heavy, wet snow as Norway took gold and Sweden silver.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Norway won in 1:15:44.8. Sweden followed 50.9 seconds behind. Finland crossed the line 1 minute 14.7 seconds after the winners and 21.3 seconds ahead of Germany in fourth.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n
Matintalo opened the relay in testing conditions on the classic leg. She handed over in sixth place, 12.2 seconds behind Sweden\u2019s Linn Svahn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cQuite okay. Not super good, but the conditions and the course were challenging,\u201d Matintalo said. \u201cA few main rivals struggled more than I did.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The opening leg saw several falls on the first downhill. Matintalo later said she had not been able to ski the course in advance and described the track as difficult.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cConditions are the same for everyone. We won\u2019t hide behind them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
On the second classic leg, Niskanen moved Finland into contention. She lifted the team to second at the exchange, 23.4 seconds behind Norway.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Her leg included drama as Sweden\u2019s Ebba Andersson fell twice and broke a binding, losing more than a minute.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was eventful,\u201d Niskanen said. \u201cI started too hard. My mind wanted to go with Slind, but my legs were further back.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Niskanen, competing in her fourth Olympics, claimed her fifth Olympic medal and her third in a relay across different Games. She later embraced coach Teemu Pasanen in the service area.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI said earlier that on Valentine\u2019s Day we have to succeed,\u201d Niskanen said with a smile.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ryytty, racing her first major championship relay, skied the first freestyle leg. Norway extended their lead to 48.3 seconds, but Ryytty held second place and broke clear of Switzerland\u2019s Marina K\u00e4lin.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cI got into a flow state and did not think about the situation,\u201d Ryytty said. \u201cI knew I could ski faster than the ones around me. I just pushed hard uphill and hoped others would drop.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Head coach Reijo Jylh\u00e4 praised her performance in an interview with Yle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOn freestyle, Vilma solved it with her effort. She exceeded herself,\u201d Jylh\u00e4 said. \u201cWe are not so good that without winning skis we can succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
He added that the medal was significant for the entire team. \u201cThis has been a journey since summer. Everyone did their part. Also the service team was very good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Joensuu started the anchor leg 18 seconds ahead of Sweden\u2019s Jonna Sundling. Sundling closed the gap on the descents and overtook on the final lap to secure silver for Sweden.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Joensuu maintained her pace and ensured bronze, with the chasing group more than 40 seconds behind at one stage. The United States finished fifth, 1:52.2 behind Norway.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIn a way I felt relief at the finish,\u201d Joensuu said. \u201cWe have been fourth so many times. I did not want it to come down to a sprint. I skied my own race.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Finland had finished fourth in the women\u2019s relay at the previous two Olympics. The last Olympic relay medal came in Sochi in 2014, when Niskanen also featured in the line-up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
For Matintalo, Ryytty and Joensuu, the bronze marked their first Olympic medal.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The result brought Finland\u2019s total Olympic medals in cross-country skiing to 87 and their tenth in the women\u2019s relay.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
HT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finland secured bronze in the women\u2019s 4×7.5km cross-country relay at the Milan\u2013Cortina Winter Olympics, ending a 12-year wait…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12996,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[87],"tags":[3999,158,113,9896,9897,9895,8322,157,132,9898,9894],"class_list":["post-12995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-helsinki","tag-cross-country-skiing","tag-finland","tag-helsinki","tag-jasmi-joensuu","tag-johanna-matintalo","tag-kerttu-niskanen","tag-milan-cortina-2026","tag-norway","tag-sweden","tag-vilma-ryytty","tag-womens-relay"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}