By Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund
TESERO, Italy, Feb 10 (Reuters) – Norway’s Johannes Klaebo won the men’s classic cross-country ski sprint with ease on Tuesday for his seventh career Olympic gold medal, while Linn Svahn led a Swedish podium sweep in the women’s race at the Milano Cortina Games.
Ben Ogden took silver in the men’s race to give the U.S. its first men’s medal in cross-country skiing since Bill Koch’s silver in the 30km at the 1976 Olympics.
Norway’s Oskar Vike won the men’s bronze.
In the women’s event, Swedish skiers Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist won silver and bronze respectively.
Svahn’s gold was the first Olympic medal for the 26-year-old, and the second for Sweden in cross-country skiing at this Olympics, after compatriot Frida Karlsson won gold in the women’s skiathlon.
Tuesday’s race was the second gold medal for Klaebo in this Games and his seventh overall, moving the 29-year-old one step closer to passing compatriots Marit Bjoergen’s and Bjorn Daehlie’s record number of golds in the sport.
“It was good to already have done the first one, so that I could relax a little bit more and enjoy it. That was exactly what I did out there today,” said Klaebo after the race.
Similar to his victorious skiathlon performance, Klaebo exploded away from the pack on his way up one of the race course’s many steep hills. With victory guaranteed over the chasing pack, he eased up towards the end and cruised over the finish line in three minutes 39.74 seconds, 0.87 seconds ahead of Ogden.
SWEDISH WOMEN DOMINATE
On the women’s side, the three Swedish medallists pulled away midway through the race, charging uphill after three earlier qualifying rounds to get to the final.
U.S. skier Jessie Diggins, the highest-ranked female skier in the world and a medal contender, failed to move past the quarter-finals.
“Everyone has been talking about what a strong team we have. To make our mark and do the whole podium sweep is amazing,” said Svahn, who finished in four minutes 3.05 seconds, beating Sundling by 1.59 seconds.
Skiers said conditions were some of the best yet of the Games during early qualification rounds because colder temperatures led to faster, more compact snow. Things changed in later rounds, however, with the course turning slushier and slower as the day went on, they said.
Both gold medallists in the classic sprint events lauded the conditions and preparations on their skis after the race.
“Today we had an amazing team. The waxers did such an amazing job,” Svahn said.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund in Tesero, Italy; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Hugh Lawson)
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