Ski Classics - the long-distance cup in cross-country skiing - took a strong hold on viewers last season.

Interest in long-distance running has increased enormously in recent years and Sweden has some of the world's best long-distance skiers in Ida Dahl, Emil Persson and Max Novak.

The winter studio's new expert Britta Johansson Norgren has, among other things, 25 Ski Classics victories, six overall victories, two Vasalopp wins and five triumphs in Tjejvasan.

Several of the biggest profiles in traditional cross-country skiing have invested in Ski Classics in recent seasons, and this year perhaps the world's greatest cross-country skier of all time, Norwegian Petter Northug, will make his debut in Ski Classics and appear on SVT's broadcasts.

- The season feels really exciting with several big Swedish teams and after a content-rich silly season, it feels more open before the season than ever.

Of course extra interesting to see what a comeback by Petter Northug can be enough for.

Most of all, I'm still looking forward to the Vasaloppet and seeing if we can get a long-awaited Swedish men's winner again, says Britta Johansson Norgren.

During the season, Johansson Norgren will also help the exercisers in the preparations for the Vasaloppet in a series of features.

- My hope is, among other things, that I will get more people to discover that they are strong enough to be able to stake with a slightly better technique, says Britta Johansson Norgren.

Britta Johansson Norgren took home the long-distance cup - in the last race of her career (April 9):

Javascript is disabled

Javascript must be enabled to play video

Read more about browser support

Britta won the last race Photo: SVT