Hanna Aronnson Elfman following in the footsteps of Anja Pärson: Meet Sweden's skiing prodigy 

“I have never seen anything like it, I get a little bit carried away by what she does,” said two-time Olympic alpine skiing champion Pernilla Wiberg.

The Swedish legend, who now works as a TV analyst for SVT, was astonished by what her compatriot Hanna Aronsson Elfman did last December at the World Cup slalom in Sestriere, Italy.

Sixteenth after the first run, the then 19-year-old - wearing bib no. 24 - clocked the fastest time in the second one to battle it out for a podium position with some of the most decorated skiers in the discipline such as Mikaela Shiffrin, Petra Vlhova and Wendy Holdener.

"She almost didn't care against whom she was competing," Wiberg added.

In the end Aronsson Elfman finished fourth, 0.35 seconds off third place, but a new star was born.

“It reminds me of when Anja Pärson won Olympic gold on the same slope in 2006,” 1997 overall World Cup winner Wiberg said, mentioning the performance of another Swedish great on the Giovanni Alberto Agnelli track of Sestriere during the Olympic Winter Games Torino 2006.

Compliments that were welcomed by the skiing prodigy, who was recently interviewed during the World championships in France: “I wouldn't compare myself to Anja because she was such a good skier, but it's really cool that she (Wiberg) made that comparison.”

Hanna Aronnson Elfman: Three junior world titles and two Olympic experiences

Aronsson Elfman is part of a generation of skiers born in the new millennium who are making strides in the sport, along with Croatia’s Zrinka Ljutic, New Zealand’s Alice Robinson and Germany’s Emma Aicher.

Her rise has been steady and impressive: she made her World Cup debut in February 2020, a few weeks after taking part in the Youth Winter Olympics Lausanne 2020.

In 2021 the talented Scandinavian won her first world junior title in Bansko, Bulgaria, before representing Sweden twelve months later at Beijing 2022.

“The Youth Olympics helped, it was a step on the way and I really enjoyed going there and watching all the big events. I remember well Sara (Hector)’s gold medal (in giant slalom), I have nice memories.”

Her breakthrough came this season as the young all-rounder proved that she can hold her own with the best women's slalom skiers in the world. She collected six top-10 finishes in the most technical discipline, including a tenth place at worlds.

At junior level, she was the star of the recent World championships in St. Anton, Austria, where she came away with two golds, one in giant slalom, followed a few days later by a title in slalom.

“I just feel it's going much better than I had expected before this season. So I'm just super happy with the season so far and I can't expect much more. So I just try to continue to enjoy skiing,” she admitted.

Hanna Aronsson Elfman: Her auntie was a freestyle skier

Born in Karlstad, a city located half-way between Oslo and Stockholm, Aronsson Elfman took up football (“I used to play as a midfielder and I ran a lot!”) and sailing ("I have a small boat, but now I don't sail that much") before focusing on skiing.

“My dad did compete a bit and later became a ski instructor and my (younger) brother Filip is also a skier, in my family we all love skiing” she said.

Her maternal aunt Marja used to compete for Sweden in international mogul's competitions, including the Winter Olympics Nagano 1998:

“She was really good, but she hasn’t actually talked much about her career. We’ve been skiing sometimes together on winter vacations and she is a nice person,” the 20-year-old revealed

“I can keep up with her in the free skiing and in the powder, but I can’t do the flips and tricks that she does, she’s too good for me!”

When she’s not on the slopes, Hanna loves spending time with her friends playing the dice game ‘Yahtzee’. During summer, fishing is one of her favourite pastimes as documented on social media in a picture where she holds a big pike:

“We have a summer house by the lake and we are usually out with the boat and fishing a bit,” she said, adding how fishing helps her be more patient.

“I feel free on the water the same way I feel on the snow.”

Hanna Aronsson Elfman: A valuable experience from Lausanne 2020

After taking part in some Europa Cup events (the tier below World Cup racing), Hanna gained valuable experience at the Youth Winter Olympic Games in Lausanne.

“I just remember it was a really cool experience and I shared it with some good friends. We were a good team: a Swedish girl, Emma (Sahlin), took gold in the slalom, while a boy, Adam (Hofstedt), kept getting medals there (two golds, one bronze),” she recalls.

“It was nice to meet athletes from other countries and other sports and also live in the same village.”

Competitions took place in the Swiss resort of Les Diablerets: “The course and the slope were super good. The surface was really icy and hard and the conditions were good for everyone. So it was a fair race and it was super fun to compete with other nations,” the Swede added.

She took part in all the events at Lausanne 2020. Her best results were a fifth place in both slalom and Super G: “Of course I really wanted a medal, but I was super happy with the experience and it didn’t matter so much.”

Hanna Aronsson Elfman: Learning from Sarah Hector and Anna Swenn-Larson, inspired by Mikaela Shiffrin

The new Swedish star is part of a strong team led by Olympic champion Sara Hector and slalom world medallist Anna Swenn-Larson:

“It’s super good to train with both Sara and Anna, because they show us what we should do and how we should ski”, she shared.

“They are so good, they are an inspiration for us younger skiers and I really try to follow them as much as I can. Sara has a super GS turn and Anna has a super slalom turn. I think I learned a lot from how they ski and then they are super good at physical training.”

Aronsson Elfman also looks up to Marco Odermatt and Mikaela Shiffrin: “Shiffrin is a nice person and really has a fighting spirit. She’s so good and she just keep winning. Everyone expects her to win all the time and she does it, so she has an incredible mentality.”

The 20-year-old says that her results this season are giving her more confidence rather than pressure, and she plans to build on that.

"I'm eally excited for the upcoming races and I just want to continue to improve and ski as good as I can,” she said.

While she dreams of winning Olympic gold, World Championship medals and World Cup globes in the future, the Swede is now focused on continuing her journey, maybe adding more speed events to her repertoire.

“Every experience makes you stronger,” the three-time junior world champion said. “Every race is preparing you and I just try to learn from those experiences. So I just keep training hard and working hard on the slopes and outside the slopes.”

Always going “full gas”, the way of life that she embraced.