Klaebo becomes 1st athlete to win 6 golds at a Winter Games

TESERO, Italy — Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo completed his historic gold medal sweep of the men's cross-country skiing events on Saturday, winning his sixth race and setting the record for the most golds by one athlete in a single Winter Olympics.

Klaebo's victory in the 50-kilometer mass start race shattered the nearly 50-year record set by American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won five golds at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.

All of Heiden's wins were in individual races and two of Klaebo's have come in team events, so Heiden's record for individual wins still stands.

"It feels amazing," Klaebo said. "To crown everything here with a 50K, it's unbelievable. In Norway, we say that if you're gonna become a man, you need to win the 50K, and today we did, so it's a perfect way to end two perfect weeks."

The solid gold performance matched the feat he accomplished at last year's world championships in Trondheim, Norway, when he won all six events.

Klaebo's teammates Martin Loewstroem Nyenget and Emil Iversen took silver and bronze, respectively, in a Norwegian sweep.

The three Norwegians had a healthy lead before the halfway mark, and continued to extend the gap on their chasers.

Nyenget drove a fast pace, trying the entire race to shake his compatriot, knowing that if he didn't, he'd fall victim to Klaebo's trademark uphill sprint.

Klaebo said he was just trying to hang on and conserve energy for the finish.

Toward the end, Nyenget and Klaebo pushed uphill and dropped Iversen. Klaebo stayed in second waiting to launch his winning move.

As the two reached the final hill, Klaebo ran away from Nyenget.

As he glided toward the finish, he pointed his fingers toward the sky, took one stride across the line, toppled over on his right hip and rolled onto his back. He finished in 2:06:44.8.

Nyenget finished 8.9 seconds later and Iversen was 30.7 seconds behind.

"I went hard from the start, so I managed to get rid of everyone else, but the best," Nyenget said. "So I'm really happy about my performance, but Johannes is the king."

France's Theo Schely finished fourth, nearly three minutes back and Savelii Korostelev, a Russian competing as an individual neutral athlete, finished fifth, 3:38.3 back.

Five skiers, including Iivo Niskanen of Finland and Harald Oestberg Amundsen of Norway, dropped out of the race and 14 competitors were lapped.

The win extends Klaebo's record for most career Winter Olympic gold medals to 11 over three Games. The previous record had been eight, which Klaebo broke on Feb 15.

Klaebo has the second-most Olympic golds overall. US swimming great Michael Phelps has 23.

The win gave Norway a record 18th gold medal and further increased its lead in the total medal count at these Games to 40 overall, also a Winter Olympics record, though this edition is bigger than ever with 116 medal events.

The country set the record Friday for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics when biathlete Johannes Dale-Skjevdal won the 15-kilometer mass start race.

Agencies via Xinhua