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Veteran sportswriter Richard Deitsch takes an international view of the Olympics.
As he launched up the final hill with his herringbone-style uphill running technique, leaving countryman Martin Nyenget in the dust as if Nyenget was a Honda Civic stuck in snow, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo climbed forcefully to history. If you were up early Saturday morning you could share in the rare collective experience of athletic greatness. The King kicked for gold on the incline —and it was over.
When Klæbo crossed the finish line first in the men’s 50-kilometre mass start classic, the Norwegian had separated himself from every other Winter Olympian in history. Klæbo is the first Winter athlete to win six gold medals at the same Games.
Here is some perspective on that: Only eight other athletes in history have won six Winter Olympics gold medals overall. The 29-year-old Klæbo has 11 career Olympic gold medals and is second only to swimmer Michael Phelps (23) as far as Olympic golds. If you are in the same conversation with Phelps, you are Zeus.
The Olympics are close to concluding and with Klæbo in mind, today’s column will honour the greatness I’ve witnessed over the past two weeks. Let’s award some medals.
Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo swept the cross-country skiing events by winning the men’s 50-kilometre mass start race, as he becomes the first athlete to win six gold medals at a single Winter Games.
Gold
Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych’s story was a mirror on the Olympics — it reflected the eternal deception of how sports and politics do not intersect. (This deception continues as the International Olympic Committee slowly brings Russia back into the fold.)
Heraskevych, a medal contender at the Milano-Cortina Games, was not allowed to participate in the competition after refusing a last-minute plea from the IOC to not race with the helmet that honours his country’s athletes and coaches killed in the war with Russia.
As I wrote earlier in the Games in a moment of editorializing, Heraskevych left Italy as an Olympic hero in my eyes. To give up his Olympic dreams for a larger principle is a decision history will judge him well on. (It already has in the present in his war-torn country.) He is the athlete of the Milano-Cortina Games for me along with Klæbo.
Silver
Unless you are a hardcore Winter Olympics fan, you likely had not heard of Elana Meyers Taylor prior to the Games. You would not know that the 41-year-old American bobsledder had five Olympic medals over five Olympics but no golds. Moms ruled the Milano-Cortina Games — shoutout to Italian speedskater Francesca Lollobrigida for blowing up outdated stereotypes — and Meyers Taylor’s story was particularly highlighted in the States. Her two sons, Nico and Noah, have special needs. They are both deaf, and Nico also has Down syndrome. A prominent disability advocate, Meyers Taylor is a human being worth admiring. She’s also fast and her time came in Milan. She was brilliant in the final two heats of women’s monobob and won the closest finish in Olympic history over Germany’s Laura Nolte.
Bronze (tie):
1) The Olympics had been cruel, at least of late, for American skier Mikaela Shiffrin. She entered the slalom competition having failed to win a medal in six events in Beijing four years ago, followed by an 11th place in the giant slalom and a fourth-place finish in the team combined event in Cortina. But that all changed with the slalom, the rare moment where expectations and reality met head on. Shiffrin is a particularly introspective athlete and clearly had internalized her Olympic struggles. That was compounded by the loss of her father. But the greatest alpine skier in history put together two of the greatest runs we have ever seen in slalom. This post from her is worth reading.
2) I have a particular fondness for speed skating since covering it for Sports Illustrated at the 2006 Games in Turin. These are superhuman athletes and no one appreciates the sport more than the Dutch. Femke Kok, the three-time world champion and record-holder in the 500m, skated the race of her life when it mattered most. She set an Olympic record in the 500 with a time of 36.49 seconds, topping countrywoman Jutta Leerdam and Japan’s Miho Takagi. Kok’s margin of victory (0.66) was the largest margin in this race since 1972. It was the reverse of the women’s 1,000 metres where Leerdam in an Olympic-record skate topped Kok to win gold.
Biggest shocker
The program began at 4:51 p.m. ET. It ended at 4:56 p.m. ET. What happened in those five minutes on Feb. 14 was the most shocking sequence at the Milano-Cortina Games for me. Ilia Malinin, the greatest male figure skater in the world, The Quad God, the surest bet for gold among all American athletes, fell apart on the ice in front of a standing-room only crowd at the Milano Ice Skating Arena. “A reminder,” said a shocked NBC announcer Terry Gannon, “that nothing is certain in sports. There is no such thing as inevitable.”
Best quote
“He has been unstoppable over the past four years. I always saw him as a mountain, and I had never get past him. But today in the Olympic Games, I finally crossed that mountain. The view from the top is incredible.” — China’s Ning Zhongyan on American Jordan Stolz after winning the men’s 1,500-metre speedskating race.
Craziest story
This was not an Olympic headline you see every day: Tearful Norwegian confesses to cheating on girlfriend after bronze-medal win. The lesson here is not to admit infidelity in front of the world’s cameras.
Most underrated play of the Games
Everyone will rightfully focus on Hilary Knight and Megan Keller when it comes to the gold-medal victory for the United States in women’s hockey. But if you watch the review of the gold medal game, watch for Alex Carpenter winning the offensive-zone faceoff that led to the game-tying goal. The little things often lead to big things.
Who will star on Sunday?
Wait, are you saying there are Olympic events other than ….
Look, you might want something to take your mind off of what’s happening at 8:10 a.m. at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena. There are five medal events on Sunday including a fascinating matchup in the four-man bobsled. Germany has owned the event over the last two Olympics, winning both gold and silver in Pyeongchang in 2018 and Beijing in 2022. Johannes Lochner (silver medals in 2018 and 2022 in this event) leads two-time gold medallist Francesco Friedrich. Another German driver, Adam Ammour, is in third. Lochner won the two-man bobsled with Friedrich taking silver. The final heat goes at 6:15 a.m. ET.
The women’s cross-country skiing 50km (4 a.m. ET) will be a battle between Sweden and Norway. Something to monitor: Race favourite Frida Karlsson of Sweden did not train much this week. Ebba Andersson of Sweden and Norway’s Astrid Oeyre Slind and Heidi Weng are also podium favourites.
The women’s Olympic freeski halfpipe was postponed Saturday because of heavy snow in the Italian Alps. It is scheduled to go at 4:40 a.m. ET on Sunday. China’s Eileen Gu looks to defend her gold medal. Great Britain’s Zoe Atkin is also one to watch.
The women’s curling gold medal match (5:05 a.m. ET) pits Switzerland versus Sweden. Then comes the main event.
What we’re reading around the web
► Sport is Canadian. It’s time to start acting like it. By Oren Weisfeld for The Globe and Mail.
► As lights go out on Milano Cortina, IOC bets on LA28 to reboot Olympic business model. By Karlolos Grohmann of Reuters
► How did Italy get so good at the Winter Olympics? Money, a ‘ghost’ and some luck. By Matthew Futterman of The Athletic.
► Russian skating dynasty leaves Milan with no medals and future Olympic status uncertain. By James Ellingsworth of The Associated Press.
► How Johannes Klaebo’s 6 Gold Medals Ranks Among the All-Time Olympic Performances. By Victor Mather of the New York Times.
