Johannes Klaebo makes Olympic history: Six golds in one Games, joining the immortals
The Norwegian becomes the third athlete to win six gold medals in a single edition with his victory in the 50km.
Johannes Klaebo — the “extraterrestrial” of cross‑country skiing — reached rarefied Olympic territory this Saturday. With his sixth gold medal at these Games, he joined Kristin Otto and Vitaly Scherbo as the only athletes in history to win six golds at a single Olympics.
Otto did it in swimming at Seoul 1988, Scherbo in gymnastics at Barcelona 1992. Above them sit the nearly untouchable giants of the pool: Mark Spitz with seven golds in Munich 1972, and Michael Phelps with eight in Beijing 2008.
Klaebo’s feat (2:07:07) stands on its own, but it also reinforces just how extraordinary Phelps’ career was. Beyond his record eight golds in 2008, Phelps owns the third‑best single‑Games haul (eight medals, six golds in Athens 2004) and the eighth‑best (six medals, five golds in Rio 2016).
Klaebo, meanwhile, has now pushed his career Olympic total to 13 medals — just two shy of fellow Norwegian legend Marit Bjørgen, who holds the Winter Games record with 11 golds. That puts Klaebo in an elite club of only 14 athletes with 13 or more Olympic medals, a group that includes Takashi Ono, Ireen Wüst, Edoardo Mangiarotti, Boris Shakhlin, Arianna Fontana, Emma McKeon, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Isabell Werth, Katie Ledecky, Nikolai Andrianov, Bjørgen, Larisa Latynina, and of course Phelps, the all‑time king with 28 medals — 23 of them gold.
A race that felt like a relay
Saturday’s race looked almost like a choreographed relay. The Norwegians seized control early and opened a massive gap. No matter how wide the camera shot went, no one else appeared. It was hypnotic in its own way — a spectacle stripped of suspense because the outcome felt inevitable.
Martin Nyenget hit the halfway checkpoint in 1:00:49, a blistering pace. In truth, both he and Emil Iversen were setting the table for Klaebo.
Behind them, the French team could only accept reality. Jules Desloges — already carrying three silvers from these Games — was nowhere near podium contention at the midpoint. His teammate Hugo Lovera and Russian neutral athlete Alexander Korostelev pushed with more hope than actual possibility. A Norwegian sweep felt like a matter of time.
Klaebo didn’t take the lead immediately. In the final kilometers, he and Nyenget pulled away after Iversen dropped off. And on the now‑famous “Klaebo Hill,” a steep rise one kilometer from the finish where he has built so many victories, the Norwegian phenom attacked. From sprint to distance, Klaebo is simply untouchable.
From pure sprinter to complete skier
Winning gold in the 50‑kilometer race marks the culmination of Klaebo’s transformation. Early in his career — which took off in the mid‑2010s with his first World Cup win in 2017 — he was known primarily as a sprinter. Now he’s a complete skier, dominant across formats.
That evolution comes from relentless dissatisfaction — his own, and that of his grandfather and coach, Kåre. “At 83, he’s the most innovative person I know,” Klaebo says. “He spends all day reading books and digging through scientific material to see how we can improve. He always has something to say, and that gives me a lot of confidence.”
It also comes from a monk‑like lifestyle. His partner’s young nephews once asked if he was still their uncle after going a full year without seeing him. Before the 2025 World Championships in his hometown of Trondheim — where he won six golds — he isolated himself at home, allowing visits only from his grandfather, his father Haakon, and a few close relatives. He wouldn’t even go out to dinner for fear of getting sick.
At these Olympics, he’s been inseparable from fellow Norwegian Emil Iversen, who finished third.
Klaebo’s legend keeps growing — and after this historic sixth gold, he’s no longer just the best skier of his generation. He’s entering the conversation with the greatest Olympians of all time.
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