- I only focus on how to take that gold.

Ebba has done very well but it is still Norwegian we are chasing.

This is not something to close your eyes to.

You have to see what to improve and where to put the gunpowder to put her there, says Frida Karlsson.

At the end of the season in Holmenkollen in March last year, Frida Karlsson broke the Swedish curse at the Norwegian ski stadium when she was catching up and about Therese Johaug.

But during last year's season, the Norwegian was once again indomitable.

What is it purely practical now to do to close the gap?

- You must ensure what you yourself have to develop, where there is the most development potential.

There is a lot to pick up in different techniques, says the 21-year-old and continues:  

- I'm still young so I can still develop a lot of my basic capacity but also protect a lot about the speed you have in the body that you can see a bit as a strength, maybe especially against her Norwegian.

Ebba Andersson, 23, does not see it as destructive that it seems to be still a bit up to the 32-year-old ski queen.

- I try to see it as inspiration and motivation that it is actually possible for me and us Swedes to ski so fast.

We have seen that she can do it, then there is something to strive for.

Our biggest inspiration is that we should be able to ski as fast as we can, says Ebba Andersson.

CLIP: The cross-country skiers selected for the 2022 Winter Olympics (04 / 05-21)

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be turned on to play video

Read more about browser support

The browser is not supported

SVT does not support playback in your browser.

We therefore recommend that you switch to another browser.

Read more about browser support

The cross-country skiers were selected for the 2022 Winter Olympics. Photo: TT