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Charlotte Kalla

Marina Charlotte Kalla (Swedish pronunciation: [ɧaˈɭɔtː ˈkâlːa] ; born 22 July 1987) is a Swedish retired cross-country skier. A four-time Olympian, Kalla won three golds and nine medals overall at the Olympics between 2004 and 2022. She holds the joint record as Sweden's most decorated Olympic competitor and is the all-time leader among Swedish female athletes. She is also a 13-time medalist at the World Championships, including a gold medal at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2015 10 km freestyle event in Falun. This made Kalla the first Swedish female cross-country skier to win individual golds in both the Olympics and World Championships. In 2008, Kalla won the Jerring Award.

She retired from competitive skiing after the Swedish Championships in March 2022.

Winter Olympics

2010 Winter Olympics

Kalla won the gold medal in the women's 10 km individual for Sweden at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with a time of 24:58.4. She also won a silver in the team sprint event with Anna Haag at those same games.

2014 Winter Olympics

Kalla won a silver medal in the skiathlon event on 8 February in Sochi, and another silver in the classical race on 13 February. In the 4 × 5 km women's relay race, held on 15 February, she ran in the final leg and started third with a 25.7 sec lag behind the first place and a 19.9 lag behind the second place, but totally reduced the gap, and overtook her competitors in the final straight, giving Sweden the gold medal.

2018 Winter Olympics

Kalla took the first gold medal awarded at the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang when she won the skiathlon, breaking away from the leading group on the last lap of the course to take victory with a lead of 7.8 seconds over second-placed Marit Bjørgen. Her win made her the first Swedish woman to win three Winter Olympic golds, and tied her with canoer Agneta Andersson as the female Swede with most Olympic gold medals overall. It was also Kalla's sixth Olympic medal, equalling Anja Pärson's record for the most Winter Olympic medals among Swedish women. She then went on to win silver in the 10 km freestyle individual start, the 4 × 5 km relay (together with Anna Haag, Ebba Andersson and Stina Nilsson) and the team sprint (with Stina Nilsson).

2022 Winter Olympics

Kalla competed in three events at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, her fourth appearance at the Games. Her highest placing was in the 15-km skiathlon, where she finished 19th as the defending champion. Kalla announced her retirement from international competition later that winter.

Other competitions

On 6 January 2008, Kalla won the second edition of Tour de Ski in her debut in the event.

On 17–18 April 2015, Kalla participated and placed second in Keb Classic, a ski mountaineering event in Kebnekaise, Sweden, with Emelie Forsberg and Josefina Wikberg.

Personal life

Kalla was born in Tärendö in Norrbotten, Sweden. She is the eldest of three daughters.

In 2023, Kalla competed on the Swedish reality TV series Let's Dance, pairing with professional dancer Tobias Karlsson. Kalla became pregnant before the competition started, becoming the first dancer to participate while pregnant. Her daughter was born 15 July 2023.

Kalla is of Tornedalian Finnish descent.

She published her autobiography in 2023: "Skam den som ger sig" ("shame on the one who gives up"), in Swedish only. Written in the first person, the book summarises her sports career and describes her view.