Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo became the first five-time gold medalist in cross-country skiing at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, bringing his career Olympic gold total to 10.
Klaebo and Einar Hedegart won the men’s team sprint final on Feb. 18 (Korean time) at the Tesero Cross-Country Ski Stadium in Italy. Klaebo and Hedegart, who also teamed up in the men’s 4x7.5-kilometer relay on Feb. 15, finished in 18 minutes, 28.98 seconds. They beat the U.S. duo of Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher (18:30.35) by 1.27 seconds. Host Italy’s Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino took bronze in 18:32.29.
In the team sprint, two skiers form a team and each races a roughly 1.5-kilometer course three times, with places decided by combined time.
Klaebo swept five events at these Games: the 10km+10km skiathlon, sprint classic, 10km interval start free, the 4x7.5km relay and the team sprint. With the relay win, he moved into first place for the most Winter Olympic gold medals in history with nine, then extended the mark to 10 with Tuesday’s victory.
Klaebo won three golds at Pyeongchang 2018 and two at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, and now has five at this Olympics for 10 total.
Across the Summer and Winter Olympics, the all-time record for most gold medals is 23 by U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.
Klaebo also matched the record for most gold medals at a single Olympics, set by American speed skater Eric Heiden at the 1980 Lake Placid Games with five (500m, 1,000m, 1,500m, 5,000m and 10,000m).
Klaebo is scheduled to race the 50km mass start on Feb. 21. A gold there would put him ahead of Heiden and set a new single-Games record for the first time in 46 years.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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