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Johannes Høsflot Klæbo led Norway to victory in the men’s cross-country team sprint on Wednesday to claim his fifth win at Milano Cortina Olympics and a record 10th Winter Olympic gold medal.
Alongside Einar Hedegart in the final, the duo saw off the United States, clocking 18min 28.9sec. Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher were 1.4sec behind for the silver, while Italy’s Elia Barp and Federico Pellegrino took bronze, 3.3sec back.
Klæbo had already surpassed the record of his compatriots Marit Bjørgen, Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Bjørn Daehlie, who had won eight golds. The 29-year-old has the chance of another landmark at the 50km classic race on Saturday, where he could break Eric Heiden’s record for the most gold medals in a single Winter Olympic Games.
His latest gold adds to the three he won in Pyeongchang in 2018 and the two in Beijing four years later, while he is also a 15-time world champion. He is the second Olympian – after the swimming great Michael Phelps – with 10 gold medals. Phelps won 23 golds in four Olympics from 2004-2016, including eight wins at the 2008 Beijing Games.
“It’s crazy. It’s hard to find words for it. It feels unreal actually,” Klæbo said. “It’s very satisfying to make this happen. The team sprint is one of the most fun events, but also one of the hardest.”
He has won every race he has entered at Milano Cortina, breaking the Winter Olympics record in Sunday’s relay. “There are so many strong teams and so many fast skiers, so it always comes down to tight battles,” he said. “That makes it even more rewarding.”
In the women’s competition, Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist continued Sweden’s winning run.
