After four second places at the last World Championships, the Swedes finally wanted to steal the dominant Norwegian women's crown, and their line-up was even more likely to be the favorites. Due to the positions with the strongest skiers of the teams, Frida Karlsson in second position and Therese Johaug as anchor woman, it promised to be a varied race, even though initially a very strong Victoria Carl (GER) with very fast ski mostly dictated the pace. The Swedes had in the classic parts the most problems with the skis in the leading group, but made up for that by their good form. Also Norway's Heidi Weng kept more in the background, so that Yulia Belorukova - but mostly Victoria Carl - were in the lead. Before the first exchange, the three favorite teams were able to escape slightly. Norway and Sweden also kept up the pace with the second athlete and were able to open an eleven second gap on the way to the second exchange thanks to Frida Karlsson and Ingvild Flugstad Østberg. Katharina Hennig (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) tried to keep the gap low, and although she was out of energies at the last long climb, she and Anastasia Sedova weer together at the exchange. By Sandra Ringwald (GER) and Anna Nechaevskaya their teams lost more than a minute, so that they could only fight for bronze. In front, in the penultimate climb Charlotte Kalla made a small preliminary decision when Astrid Uhrenholdt Jacobsen wasn't able to follow her high pace and the distance was 18 seconds in the last exchange.
Now sprint specialist Stina Nilsson once again had to prove her all-round qualities and keep Therese Johaug in check for as long as possible, which she did quite well. Only slowly the Norwegian came closer, but had caught up with the exhausted Swede before the last climbs at the stadium. Now Stina Nilssn had to mobilize the last energies to follow Therese Johaug: In the climb she bogged down and even took the lead after the downhill and Therese Johaug had to cancel an attack at the beginning of the last climb, because the Swede proved to be too strong. The Swede was the first on top: With this gold was distributed to the Swedes, who fell into their arms after crossing the line. Norway did not have to be surprised by silver this time. The battle for third place went out in favor of the Russians, after Laura Gimmler (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) after four strong kilometers wasn't able to keep up with Natalia Nepryaeva. Her fall in the penultimate downhill was no longer in weight. While Natalia Nepryaeva just shrugged her shoulders when entering the finish line, the German quartet cheered for fourth place, the best World Championship result since 2009, and since then there has not been more than sixth place - also in the Olympic Games.
