Norway’s Johannes Klaebo set a Winter Olympics record by winning six gold medals at a single Games.
Klaebo won the men’s 50-kilometer mass start at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Feb. 21 (Korean time) at the cross-country stadium in Tesero, Italy, finishing in 2 hours, 6 minutes, 44.8 seconds.
The victory completed a sweep of all six cross-country events he entered: skiathlon (10km plus 10km), sprint classic, 10km interval start free, 4x7.5km relay, team sprint and the 50km mass start.
His six golds broke the previous record for most titles at one Winter Olympics, set by American speedskater Eric Heiden with five at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.
Klaebo also raised his career Olympic gold total to 11 after winning three in Pyeongchang in 2018 and two in Beijing in 2022, extending his own record for the most Winter Olympic gold medals.
In the 50km mass start, Klaebo trailed Norwegian teammate Martin Loewstroem Nyenget by 0.1 seconds at the 48.6km mark. He then covered the final 1.4km, which included a climb, in 4:33.8 to pull away and win by 8.9 seconds.
Nyenget took silver in 2:06:53.7, and Emil Iversen won bronze in 2:07:15.5, giving Norway a sweep of the podium.
Klaebo debuted on the senior circuit in the 2015-16 International Ski Federation cross-country World Cup season and became the youngest overall World Cup champion at age 20. At these Games, he won both sprint and distance events to set new Olympic marks.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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