{"id":466749,"date":"2026-02-13T18:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466749\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T18:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T18:35:07","slug":"klaebo-sets-the-gold-standard-at-the-winter-games-skis-into-record-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/466749\/","title":{"rendered":"Klaebo sets the gold standard at the Winter Games, skis into record books"},"content":{"rendered":"

TESERO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Friday the 13th will be remembered as a lucky day for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. Norway\u2019s cross-country skiing star<\/a> tied an all\u2011time Winter Games record by winning his eighth gold medal Friday at the Milan Cortina Olympics<\/a>. The 29\u2011year\u2011old claimed victory in the men\u2019s 10 kilometer interval\u2011start race, for his third gold at the 2026 games.<\/p>\n

With three races still ahead, he now shares the record with three other Norwegian athletes who have all retired: Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie in cross-country skiing and Ole Einar Bjoerndalen in the biathlon.<\/p>\n

Klaebo said he has tried to flip the script on superstition about the supposedly ill-fated day, having proposed last year to his girlfriend, Pernille Doesvik, on June 13th \u2014 also a Friday. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think I like Friday the 13th,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the days in this Olympics, so far, have been good for Klaebo<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The win was particularly meaningful for Klaebo because he doesn\u2019t do as well in a race against the clock when he\u2019s not going head-to-head with rivals. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the distance I\u2019ve kind of struggled the most with so being able to do that means a lot,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then it\u2019s cool to be up there (in the records) with a lot of great athletes.\u201d Klaebo again gained vital ground in the final hill and clocked 20 minutes, 36.2 seconds, showing rare signs of fatigue as he collapsed at the finish line of the race considered to be his toughest challenge. <\/p>\n

He was 4.9 seconds head of Frances\u2019s Mathis Desloges and 14 in front of his main challenger Einar Hedegart also of Norway who lost momentum on the last hill. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a special day,\u201d Klaebo said. \u201cThis one means a lot for sure \u2026 I\u2019m lost for words.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Norwegian said he was happy with his tactics, racing the first half of the course with a controlled pace, saving energy for a burst up the last hill and home stretch \u2014 an ability that often sets him apart from others. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really hard out there today so I\u2019m very proud,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Over at the French camp, athletes and team officials celebrated as if they had won the race, linking arms and dancing on the snow after underdog Desloges won his second silver medal in his Olympics debut. \u201cI trained incredibly hard for these races,\u201d Desloges said. \u201cI told people I was at this level \u2014 and now we are delivering.\u201d The 23-year-old Frenchman, like many other top racers in the interval start, was mostly unaware of his position during the race. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really pay attention to what\u2019s being shouted from the sidelines,\u201d he said. \u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t listen to them. I just focus on my race. I know what I have to do and I give it everything.\u201d On a blue-sky day in northern Italy, with the race track surrounded by the snow-capped Dolomite mountains, temperatures hovered around 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). A few racers chose to compete wearing only their race bibs. <\/p>\n

Organizers had treated the course with salt Thursday to harden the surface but left it untouched Friday \u2014 a decision that favored Klaebo, who started early among the seeded skiers. Celebrations were led by Norwegian fans: national flags \u2014 red with a blue cross outlined in white \u2014 were draped over athletes and the railing on the spectators\u2019 area. Klaebo\u2019s grandfather, Kare Hoesflot, who helped launch his career traveled to northern Italy to watch the race, while messages of congratulations poured in from back home, where cross-country skiing is a prime time sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother show of strength from Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. What a performance in a thriller of a race! Congratulations on gold number three in these Olympics!,\u201d Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere wrote on social media. Finn Dahl, a retired marketing manager from Norway, was dressed in a white suit covered in Norwegian flags and the motto, \u201cThe Viking is back\u201d emblazoned on the front pocket as he watched Klaebo win. He credited Klaebo\u2019s success to relentless hard work. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s so dedicated. He sacrificed everything in terms of training, how he eats, how he sleeps and calms down after races,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic \u2026 he\u2019s up to eight now,\u201d Dahl said. \u201cI hope he\u2019ll be the biggest winner ever. \u201c \u2014-<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TESERO, Italy (AP) \u2014 Friday the 13th will be remembered as a lucky day for Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[190960,113110,37507,185252,217155,6801,214910,217152,217150,217153,6803,217154,217151,45567,200479,99,14830,45569],"class_list":["post-466749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2026-milan-cortina-olympic-games","tag-2026-winter-olympics","tag-biathlon","tag-cross-country-skiing","tag-einar-hedegart","tag-italy","tag-johannes-hoesflot-klaebo","tag-jonas-gahr-stoere","tag-marit-bjoergen","tag-mathis-desloges","tag-norway","tag-norway-olympic-team","tag-ole-einar-bjoerndalen","tag-olympic-games","tag-send-to-apple-news","tag-sports","tag-sports-retirements","tag-winter-olympic-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=466749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}