By Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund
TESERO, Italy, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Johannes Klaebo led Norway to victory in the men’s cross-country team sprint on Wednesday to win his fifth gold of the Milano Cortina Games and 10th career Olympic title, while Sweden’s women extended their domination of the sport with another gold.
The U.S. men’s team won silver, their second of these Games which ended a 50-year medal drought, while Italy took bronze. On the women’s side, Switzerland took silver and Germany bronze.
Klaebo’s victory on Wednesday, which he clinched alongside teammate Einar Hedegart, ties him with U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden’s record five golds in a single Winter Games.
He had already surpassed the record for most titles at all Winter Olympics with his win in the men’s relay. He now has the most Olympic titles ever behind U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps.
“It’s crazy. It’s hard to find words for it. It feels unreal actually,” Klaebo said.
France were podium contenders ahead of the race but suffered a series of setbacks after three-times silver medallist Mathis Desloges broke his ski poles twice, leaving the team in 12th place.
Norway held a commanding lead for most of the contest, leaving Gus Schumacher from the U.S. and Italian Federico Pellegrino to battle it out for silver.
Schumacher put on a strong chase against Klaebo up a final hill, but ultimately finished 1.37 seconds behind.
“You make a plan for the tactics. The one tactical plan we made today was a bad one, so we had to improvise from there,” he said after the race while standing with teammate Ben Ogden, who won a silver in the classic sprint earlier in the Games.
“That wasn’t tactics, that was just legs baby!” Schumacher said in jest about his charge uphill.
Italy’s bronze is the second for Pellegrino, who was also third in the men’s relay and said these will be his final Olympics.
SWEDEN’S WOMEN DOMINATE
Jonna Sundling and Maja Dahlqvist led Sweden to the country’s fourth gold medal in cross-country skiing at these Olympics, finishing 1.4 seconds ahead.
“We did the race as we wanted. It’s one thing to say you want to do it one way, but it can be very difficult to handle it out there,” said Sundling.
Switzerland took silver in that race, as anchor Nadine Faehndrich surged away from a chasing group in the final lap, while Germany won bronze – the first medal in cross-country skiing during these Games for those countries.
“She’s a really good uphill skier. In some way I felt really safe with Maja,” Sundling added.
Sweden’s women have dominated cross-country skiing events with nine medals, including golds in skiathlon, classic sprint and the 10km freestyle interval race.
The Scandinavian country had been favourites for the women’s relay, but lost out to Norway following a series of crashes.
While Sweden led for much of Wednesday’s race, Finland held a medal position alongside the U.S. for the first five laps, but suffered a crash in the final segment and ended up ninth.
The Americans, led by medal-hopeful Jessie Diggins, had to settle for fifth place.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton and Tommy Lund in Tesero, Italy; Editing by Ken Ferris and Alison Williams)
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