Sandra Catrin Näslund (born 6 July 1996) is a Swedish

freestyle skier Freestyle skiing is a skiing discipline comprising aerials, moguls, cross, half-pipe, slopestyle and big air as part of the Winter Olympics. It can consist of a skier performing aerial flips and spins and can include skiers sliding rails and ...

, specializing in

ski cross Ski cross is a skiing competition which incorporates terrain features traditionally found in freestyle skiing with courses which include big-air jumps and high-banked turns. In spite of the fact that it is a timed racing event, it is often con ...

and

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

.FIS Profile – Freestyle
/ref>
/ref> She is the 2022 ski cross Olympic champion, the 2017, 2021 and 2023 ski cross World Champion, winner of the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 ski cross World Cups, and the overall winner of the 2018 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup.

Career

Näslund made her Freestyle World Cup debut in March 2012. As of the 2021–22 season, she has won the Ski cross World Cup three times and has won a total of 28 individual World Cup races. Näslund competed at the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

for Sweden. She finished 10th in the seeding run for the

event. In the first round, she won in her heat, advancing. In the quarterfinals, she finished second, again advancing. She failed to finish her semi-final, ending up in the B final, which she won, to secure 5th place. She became Sweden's first world champion in ski cross when she won the

FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships 2017 The 2017 FIS Freestyle Ski and Snowboarding World Championships were held in Sierra Nevada, Spain, from March 6–19, 2017. Snowboard cross team events for men and women were introduced to the championships schedule for the first time, bringing ...

Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada ( ) is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primari ...

. During the 2017–2018 season, she won both the skicross and the freestyle skiing world cups for women. Näslund injured her right knee during practice, in November 2020, before the World Cup season premiere in

Arosa Arosa is a List of towns in Switzerland, town and a municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Plessur Region in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland. It is both a summer and a winter tourist resort. On 1 January 2013, the former mu ...

. She spent the following eleven weeks rehabilitating her injury, before making her season debut at the World Championships in

Idre Idre is a locality and ski resort situated in Älvdalen Municipality, Dalarna County, Sweden with 794 inhabitants in 2010. It was also a historical parish and former municipality. History The two parishes ''Särna'' and ''Idre'' were originall ...

. Näslund placed second in the qualification run and three days later she won each of the elimination heats, including the big final, to claim her second World Championships gold medal. Näslund won a gold medal at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

, where she won the qualification run and each of the following elimination heats, including the big final, becoming the first Swedish skier to win the Ski cross event. Näslund also dominated the Ski cross World Cup over the 2021–22 season, winning eleven out of twelve races.

Personal life

Näslund is openly

lesbian A lesbian is a homosexual woman or girl. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate nouns with female homosexu ...

World Cup results

Season titles

5 titles (1 overall, 4

)

Season standings

Ski cross individual victories

* 37 wins * 63 podiums

Ski cross mixed team victories

* 1 win * 2 podiums

World Championship results

Olympic results

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Naslund, Sandra 1996 births Living people Olympic freestyle skiers for Sweden Freestyle skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Freestyle skiers at the 2022 Winter Olympics Swedish female alpine skiers Swedish female freestyle skiers People from Kramfors Swedish lesbian sportswomen LGBTQ skiers Olympic medalists in freestyle skiing Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Medalists at the 2022 Winter Olympics Skiers from Västernorrland County 21st-century Swedish LGBTQ people 21st-century Swedish sportswomen