Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo captured his sixth gold medal of the Olympic Winter Games with a commanding victory in the men’s 50-kilometer mass start cross-country skiing race.
The win completed a clean sweep of every men’s cross-country event on the Olympic program and set a new record for the most gold medals won by a single athlete at one Winter Games.
Klæbo’s sixth title surpassed the long-standing mark of five gold medals established by American speed skater Eric Heiden at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, according to reports.
While Klæbo now holds the overall single-Games gold standard, Heiden’s distinction for most individual gold medals at one Winter Olympics remains intact. All five of Heiden’s victories in 1980 came in solo events, whereas two of Klæbo’s six medals at these Games were earned in team competitions.
Beyond the single-Games milestone, Klæbo further cemented his place in Olympic history by extending his career total to 11 Winter Olympic gold medals across three appearances. He had already broken the previous career record of eight earlier in the Games and now stands alone atop the all-time
