{"id":480370,"date":"2026-02-20T18:38:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480370\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T18:38:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T18:38:07","slug":"norway-wins-17th-gold-medal-breaking-record-for-most-golds-won-in-winter-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/480370\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway wins 17th gold medal, breaking record for most golds won in Winter Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) \u2014 Johannes Dale-Skjevdal of Norway was the only biathlete<\/a> to hit all 20 of his targets in the 15-kilometer mass start race Friday and skied his way to gold \u2014 Norway\u2019s 17th gold medal of the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics<\/a> \u2014 breaking the record for the most gold medals won by a nation at a single Winter Olympics. <\/p>\n

Norway had set the record at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with 16 gold medals. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s quite a good ending to my first Olympics, and it is also my first time shooting 20 out of 20,\u201d Dale-Skjevdal said. \u201cWhat a day to do it on. It\u2019s real, and I can\u2019t find the words, but it\u2019s just amazing, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dale-Skjevdal had taken the lead after the first standing bout with clean shooting and completed the five laps on newly packed snow and gusty winds in 39 minutes, 17.1 seconds. His teammate Sturla Holm Laegreid only missed one target and finished 10.5 seconds back for silver. It was his fifth medal of these Olympic Games: three silver and two bronze. <\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the third shooting, I was really hoping for something special, because then I got quite a solid gap, and then I knew that on my last shooting I would be alone on the range,\u201d Dale-Skjevdal said. \u201cIt was a situation that you dream of: coming alone on to the range, shooting in Antholz, in the Olympics, in my favorite discipline in mass start. I\u2019m so happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Laegreid, who turned 29 on Friday, said it was a special day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a tough race,\u201d he said. \u201cThe snow is very slow. The conditions on the range are windy, so it was like a race I had to fight for. Today I was in fighter mode, so it suited me well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philipp Horn of Germany only missed one target on his last shooting bout and left the range in third place, but Quentin Fillon Maillet of France, who missed four on the day, chased Horn and passed him on a big hill, and took the bronze, 25.6 seconds behind Dale-Skjevdal.<\/p>\n

Fillon Maillet said he felt strong on the skiing and was excited to win his ninth Olympic medal. <\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t feel pain in my legs, so I could push hard,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t so good on the shooting range, but you know, never mind. It\u2019s still a medal, and with these Olympics it makes it nine in total right now. That\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horn said it was a huge disappointment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was great on the shooting range,\u201d he said. \u201cI kept calm and relaxed, and did my job, but on the last loop I was just not strong enough. It was a fourth place, which is worth nothing at the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fillon Maillet, who was on the gold medal winning team in the mixed relay and men\u2019s relay<\/a>, also won gold in the sprint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Campbell Wright, America\u2019s last hope for its first Olympic medal in biathlon, struggled on the shooting range. He missed seven out of 20 and finished in last place. <\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s Tommaso Giacomel, who sits second in overall World Cup standings, cleaned all 10 of his prone shots, and was leading the race, but dropped out of the race on the third lap. A message sent out by the Italian biathlon federation said he retired due to a \u201csudden pain in his side which affected his breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Only the top 30 biathletes compete in the mass start race \u2014 based on World Cup rankings and Olympic performance. They ski five, 3-kilometer loops, shooting twice in the prone position and twice standing. <\/p>\n

The women\u2019s 12.5-kilometer mass start is scheduled for Saturday \u2014 the final day of the Olympic biathlon competition. <\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP Winter Olympics: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) \u2014 Johannes Dale-Skjevdal of Norway was the only biathlete to hit all 20 of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480371,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[190960,113110,37507,221789,221787,217154,45567,221788,221786,99,221790,45569],"class_list":["post-480370","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-campbell-wright","tag-johannes-dale-skjevdal","tag-norway-olympic-team","tag-olympic-games","tag-philipp-horn","tag-quentin-fillon-maillet","tag-sports","tag-tommaso-giacomel","tag-winter-olympic-games"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480370","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=480370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480370\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}