{"id":290879,"date":"2026-02-19T02:04:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290879\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T02:04:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:04:12","slug":"fast-and-fur-ious-dog-makes-unexpected-olympic-debut-during-cross-country-ski-finish-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/290879\/","title":{"rendered":"Fast and fur-ious: Dog makes unexpected Olympic debut during cross-country ski finish"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ben Church, CNN<\/p>\n

There was a welcome addition to the end of Wednesday’s Olympic women’s cross-country skiing team sprint free race, when a dog joined some of the athletes for the final sprint to the line.<\/p>\n

Footage from the broadcast showed the happy-looking pup running behind two skiers, with the crowd cheering as it crossed the finish line.<\/p>\n

The dog was then shown sniffing at the competition, with skiers looking somewhat confused by their new rival.<\/p>\n

“He was super happy crossing the finish line. I was so focused on finishing the race (that) I didn’t look at the dog,” Argentinian skier Nahiara D\u00edaz Gonz\u00e1lez said after the race.<\/p>\n

“It was just a fun experience. This is not normal. I don’t know what he was doing here. But the finish was not a problem. Luckily, it went well.”<\/p>\n

\"Val<\/p>\n

\nA dog runs next to Tena Hadzic from Croatia during the cross-country team sprint on Lago di Tesero during the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina 2026.
\nPhoto: AFP \/ NTB \/ Terje Pedersen\n<\/p>\n

Wait, tell me more about this dog<\/p>\n

Fear not, we have a backstory on the runaway canine.<\/p>\n

According to NPR, the four-legged friend is local to the area and is named Nazgul.<\/p>\n

After being wrangled by organizers, the Czechoslovakian wolfdog – officially called a Czechoslovakian Vlciak by the American Kennel Club (AKC) – was later returned to his owners who, as NPR reports, are related to one of the event officials.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nAccording to NPR, the four-legged friend is local to the area and is named Nazgul.
\nPhoto: Anne-Christine Poujoulat\/AFP\/Getty Images via CNN Newsource\n<\/p>\n

Although two-year-old Nazgul wasn’t available for comment after his Olympic debut, his owners spoke on his behalf to explain what happened.<\/p>\n

“He was crying this morning more than normal because he was seeing us leaving and I think he just wanted to follow us,” the owner told NPR, adding the dog had escaped from the house. “He always looks for people.”<\/p>\n

According to the AKC, Nazgul then is somewhat of an exception in his nature. The breed is marked as “lovey dovey” with family members but “reserved” when confronted by strangers.<\/p>\n

However, he sure does live up to other aspects of the breed, with the AKC saying they are an “excellent choice for tracking or trailing sport\/work, or as a companion for active owners who enjoy spending time doing outdoor activities such as biking, running, or hiking” – or Olympic cross-country skiing it seems.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\nA dog \u2013 reportedly a Czechoslovakian wolfdog \u2013 wanders onto the ski trail during the women’s team cross country free sprint qualification event at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium in Lago di Tesero (Val di Fiemme) on February 18.
\nPhoto: Anne-Christine Poujoulat\/AFP\/Getty Images via CNN Newsource\n<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Nazgul didn’t seem to have much of an impact on the race, which was just a qualification for the final.<\/p>\n

“I was surprised as everyone else,” said Sweden’s Maja Dahlqvist, who went onto win gold in the event, alongside her teammate Jonna Sundling.<\/p>\n

“That was something I had never seen ever before. Kind of crazy.”<\/p>\n

Let’s hope to see Nazgul compete for real when the 2030 Winter Games come around in France.<\/p>\n

– CNN<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Ben Church, CNN There was a welcome addition to the end of Wednesday’s Olympic women’s cross-country skiing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-290879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}