As the interview with Margit Nordin.

A 23-year-old physiotherapist who, to everyone's surprise, rode the second Vasaloppet in 1923. I have seen the black-and-white journal footage of the smiling woman on the track many times, but why did she go?

And how was it?

Fantastic narrator

Then she shows up in an interview I've never seen.

She's a great storyteller.

Trained by skiing 30 km to a patient in the woods three times a week and encouraged by friends who offered her money, she took on the adventure.

She managed it gallantly - was not the least bit tired, she assures - and can not for the life of her understand how her race could lead to a ban on women in the Vasaloppet for 58 years.

Then I find the next unexpected piece of the puzzle.

Hyland women's rights activist

Greta Carlsson is in the audience in Sweden's most popular entertainment program Hylands Hörna.

It is 1965 and many more years until the women will be allowed to ride the Vasaloppet.

But Greta has gone without a number plate.

Often.

Lennart Hyland acts as a feminist and calls the ban one of the last strongholds in men's society that must be fought!

I learn about the Vasaloppet and about time.

The history of the race is part of Sweden's and the road to gender equality was much longer than today - not least in sports.

And the Vasaloppet was a real stop block for the women.

Living testimony

In the archive I also find the testimonies of those who participated a hundred years ago.

I wish I had been allowed to ride in the caravan of sleighs that for song and music brought the first Vasaloppet riders to the farms where they would live in 1922. The description from one of the riders is so vivid that I hear the accordions and bells along the Västerdalälven river.

The story of the skier who fell asleep in a cabin four kilometers from the finish - can it really be true?

And was it really such a thief-and-rack game in the lead that they tell?

The Vasaloppet is as much cultural history as a sports competition.

The stories and tales are endless.

I'm happy to tell you some of them.