(Photo credit: Kai Pfaffenbach/Reuters via Imagn Images)

TESERO, Italy -- Sweden dominated the women's 10km cross-country freestyle ski race on Thursday, with Frida Karlsson and Ebba Andersson taking their second gold-silver finish of the Milan Cortina Olympics.

U.S. skier Jessie Diggins won the bronze, her first medal of these Games and fourth career Olympic medal after a disappointing start in the skiathlon and classic sprint earlier in the Olympics.

Karlsson and Andersson had also claimed gold and silver respectively in Saturday's skiathlon.

Their success continues a streak of Swedish domination in the sport at these Games after the Scandinavian country swept the podium in the women's classic sprint earlier this week.

'I was trying to be really calm in the beginning and find the rhythm in the skiing, and I was like, 'now I can pull the brakes off' and just go with what I had,' Karlsson said.

She finished 46.6 seconds ahead of Andersson in Thursday's interval-style 10km race.

'I was getting so much energy from the spectators. We have a lot of Swedes here cheering and our coaches were giving me times and so much energy to carry me to this gold.'

The strongest racers were seeded in the middle of the race, and the battle for silver and bronze was much closer, with Andersson beating Diggins by a few seconds.

'I think I had good pace at the beginning but then on the second lap I started to struggle and that took all the energy out of my body,' Andersson said.

'I'm happy with this silver medal once again and really impressed with the speed Frida had out in the tracks.'

Skiers contended with warmer-than-ideal temperatures on Thursday, prompting officials to salt the course ahead of the event to keep the snow compact, which could have given a slight advantage to earlier starters.

Some racers even cut the sleeves and legs off their uniforms as temperatures reached around 44 degrees Fahrenheit.

Diggins had a fall in the skiathlon, the first cross-country skiing event of the Olympics, which she has said bruised her ribs and has caused pain when skiing.

'There has been honestly some mental pain knowing this wasn't how it was supposed to go, and it's really hard when things out of your control are going sideways and you're just hurting,' she said.

Diggins, 34, is competing in her fourth Olympics, previously winning gold in the team sprint in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018, and winning two medals in Beijing in 2022, silver in the mass start and bronze in the individual sprint.

--Reuters, special to Field Level Media