By Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund
TESERO, Italy, Feb 21 (Reuters) – Johannes Klaebo led a Norwegian podium sweep in the men’s 50km classic cross-country race on Saturday to claim his sixth gold of the Milano Cortina Games and break the record for most titles in a single Winter Olympics.
Victory on Saturday for “King Klaebo”, as fans call him, breaks U.S. speed skater Eric Heiden’s record five gold medals from the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York. It was the 11th career gold for the 29-year-old, giving him the most Olympic titles behind U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, who has 23.
“It’s unbelievable. After (winning) the World Champs last year, we knew that it was possible, but to be able to do it, it’s hard to find the right words,” Klaebo said after the race.
Klaebo was part of a trio of Norwegian skiers that broke away from the pack early in the race as Martin Loewstroem Nyenget pushed the pace and seemed poised to challenge for gold.
Klaebo tore away, however, on the final climb of the competition, charging up the same hill where he has stranded competitors for other races in these Games.
“There are choices to make and we’ve made all the right choices this year. Mentally, I’ve been in a better place than I was last year and I have a lot of fun racing out there now,” he said.
‘STRONGEST IN THE WORLD’
Nyenget won silver, finishing 8.9 seconds behind Klaebo, and the bronze went to Emil Iversen, who held with his teammates for much of the race but ended 30.7 seconds behind the lead.
“It’s unreal what we have done today. We got away from everybody else, and we were the three strongest skiers in the world. I am one of those three,” said Iversen.
Fourth-place finisher Theo Schely of France crossed the finish nearly three minutes behind Klaebo.
While Klaebo closed the race with a comfortable lead, he collapsed at the finish line in an unusual show of exhaustion for the skier who has dominated all six cross-country skiing men’s events at these Games.
Norway’s Harald Oestberg Amundsen and Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, who had been in the front pack early on and were seen as medal-contenders, dropped out on an uphill climb around the 37-minute mark of the race with about 15km completed.
Niskanen had been dealing with an illness all week, while Amundsen said a sickness before the Games hurt his performance.
“When I noticed I’m not going skiing for medals today, I figured it’s time to come to my senses so that I don’t kill myself out there,” Niskanen said after dropping from the race.
Olympic medalists Federico Pellegrino of Italy and Ben Ogden of the United States also did not race due to illnesses.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund in Tesero, Italy; Editing by Alison Williams and Andrew Cawthorne)
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