Simona Aebersold (Photo IOF)
Both Simona Aebersold of Switzerland and Kasper Fosser of Norway lifted the iconic World Cup trophies once again as the 2026 season concluded with the European Championships in Lithuania over the weekend.
Meanwhile, it was the first time Norway has won the Team World Cup in its current format.
The World Cup season comprised four rounds—starting with two sprint rounds in Locarno, Switzerland, and Skara/Lidköping, Sweden, in the spring, before moving to the forest in August in Vyšší Brod, Czechia, and concluding in Druskininkai, Lithuania, at the European Championships.
Third in row for Aebersold
In the women’s competition, Simona Aebersold secured her third consecutive overall victory following a highly consistent season featuring three wins, three second-place finishes, one third-place finish, and a sixth-place finish in the final middle-distance race in Lithuania.
This gave her 716 points—122 points ahead of the runner-up, Pia Young Vik, who claimed second place for the second year in a row.
Sanna Fasth of Sweden took third place in the World Cup, trailing by another 119 points.
Fourth place went to Tereza Rauturier of Czech Republic and fifth to Cécile Calandry, while Hanna Lundberg of Sweden – who won the season’s first and last races—finished sixth.
Fosser won his fourth trophy
In the men’s competition, Kasper Fosser’s overall victory was even more commanding following the Norwegian’s two gold medals at the championships in Lithuania. Fosser thus won half of the World Cup races, scored a total of 667 points, and lifted the large wooden globe trophy for the fourth time in his career.
Tomáš Křivda of Czech Republic amassed 493 points, having—among other achievements—won the middle-distance race on home soil in the Czechia in August and taken second place in the first sprint in Locarno.
Fabian Aebersold of Switzerland finished the season strongly with a second and a third-place finish, climbing to third place overall with 460 points.
He overtook Eirik Langedal Breivik pf Norway, who finished fourth, while Tuomas Heikkilä of Finland and Viktor Svensk of Sweden placed fifth and sixth, respectively, after each securing a race win during the season.
First Team trophy for Norway
The Norwegian national team was also deservedly celebrated on the podium in Lithuania over the weekend following a decisive victory in the Team World Cup.
The Norwegians established a significant lead early on by winning the first two sprint relays in Switzerland and Sweden; they maintained that lead and accumulated a total of 6,706 points.
Sweden, which had won the team competition since 2019, finished second with 6,198 points, while Switzerland took third place with 5,564 points.
With the conclusion of the World Cup season, it is time to look ahead to next year, which will take the world’s best athletes to Sweden in June, the Czech Republic in July, and Switzerland in September and October, before the season concludes with the final in Spain in late October.
