But are you aware of Stina Nilsson’s credentials as a cross-country skier and a biathlete now that she is entering the Ski Classics circuit?

Also Read: Stina Nilsson joins the Ski Classics circuit

Stina Nilsson was born on June 24, 1993, in Malung, Sweden, and four years later, she put her bib number on for the first time.

However, that competition is not included in the FIS results database for logical reasons. There, the first listing is instead the season debut in Bruksvallarna 2009.

There, Nilsson won the sprint in the junior class ahead of Madeleine Thorn. Later that season, she won the first Junior Swedish Championships gold at the sprint in Hudiksvall.

The Junior World Championships debut took place in Otepää, Estonia, in 2011, and her best result was 12th place in the sprint. Just a week later, she took gold in the sprint at the European Youth Olympics in Liberec.

During her last two junior years, Nilsson managed to win three golds and a silver at the Junior World Championships.

The World Cup debut occurred in Drammen 2012, where Nilsson advanced from the qualification round but finished 23rd after being eliminated in the quarterfinals.

The first podium place came in Liberec the following season when she came second in the team sprint with Ida Ingemarsdotter. That duo also skied together in 2015 when Nilsson took her career’s first World Cup victory.

In individual events, third place in Drammen 2014 was the first time she reached the podium. In December 2015, in Davos, for the first time, she reached the top of a World Cup podium in an individual competition.

There were 108 World Cup starts in total, 41 of which were on the podium. A total of 23 times, Stina Nilsson was at the top of the results list.

The World Championships debut at senior level took place in Val di Fiemme in 2013 when she finished the competition as fifth in the sprint. In the following World Championships, she became “Silver-Stina” when she won three silvers at the home World Championships in Falun.

The gold she won in 2019, when Nilsson, in her last cross-country skiing World Championships, won both the sprint and the relay in Seefeld.

In the context of the Winter Olympics, Nilsson won five medals in her seven races. In Sochi 2014, she won bronze in the team sprint; in Pyeongchang, she won four medals: gold in the sprint, silver in the relay and team sprint, and perhaps the most surprising, bronze in the 30km.

Nilsson had some rib problems at the start of the 2019-20 season, and the last recorded start in the FIS results database was in the Tour de Ski at Lenzerheide on December 28, 2019.

Three months later came the news that Nilsson was changing her sport to biathlon.

Nilsson spent four seasons as a biathlete.

She made her international debut on January 14, 2021, when she was 99th in the IBU Cup sprint in Arber, Germany. At the end of the season, she had a successful debut at the World Cup in Östersund, finishing 26th in the sprint and 22nd in the pursuit.

The following season was the best of her biathlon career. She ran the second leg in the Swedish relay team that came second in Ruhpolding (other team members were Johanna Skottheim, Mona Brorsson, and Anna Magnusson). On March 5, she finished third in the sprint in Kontiolahti, behind Denise Herrmann-Wick and Tiril Eckhoff.

The 2022-23 season was by far her best competition week, as she competed in the European Championships in Lenzerheide. Individually, Nilsson placed fourth and fifth, and in the mixed relay, the Swedish team with Tilda Johansson, Stina Nilsson, Malte Stefansson, and Anton Ivarsson took bronze.

Her final biathlon season, which ended just over a month ago, produced three IBU Cup podiums, and at the World Cup, 24th place in Canmore was the top finish.

But she also won the Skinnarloppet at home in Malung and the Idre-Särnaloppet. On April 23, Stina Nilsson announced she would race long-distance races for Team Ragde Charge for the next two seasons.