Johannes Høsflot Klæbo's sixth Olympic gold medal of his career did not come as a surprise. The Norwegian ski king won all six gold medals at the World Championships in Trondheim last year and has now started the competitions in Val di Fiemme in the same impressive style.
A quintet ultimately fought for victory, but when it came down to it, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo was outstanding. The 29-year-old delivered the decisive blow - the powerful, patented jump skate - on the final uphill and completely crushed his competitors.
Mathis Desloges sprinted to Olympic silver ahead of the next Norwegian, Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, but the Frenchman's second place came with a big question mark behind it. During a lap, Desloges skied the wrong way, clearly in a hurry, and received a yellow card for the action, but avoided a fine.
Had to double check the results list
Fourth came the Russian Savelij Korosteljov, who is competing as a neutral athlete, and not far behind him the first Swede skied across the finish line.
It wasn't the one I expected.
"You don't believe it's true, and I had to double-check when I crossed the finish line whether it was really true," says Truls Gisselman.
After the opening 10 kilometers in classic style, Klæbo was joined by seven other riders. The most unexpected name in that group was the 24-year-old from Bollnäs, whose best individual result at senior level had been tenth in a World Cup race. Sunday's unexpected seventh place, 37 seconds behind Klæbo, was another step up.
“Terribly impressive”
Just the fact that he was able to get behind Norwegian star Harald Østberg Amundsen during the final lap was awesome, says Gisselman.
"It felt absolutely crazy to ski around there with Amundsen, who is still ranked as one of the world's best freestyle skiers, and yet feel like you're keeping up. It was absolutely fantastic," says Gisselman.
Men's coach Lars Ljungh was full of emotions after the race. He was sad that Edvin Anger's day was ruined by a fall and two broken poles, but tearfully happy for Gisselman.
"It's really cool to see Truls today; he's had the best race of his life when it mattered the most. It's so much fun and so incredibly impressive," says Ljungh.
William Poromaa was the second-best Swede in twelfth place, 1 minute 11 seconds behind Klæbo. Edvin Anger was 37th and Gustaf Berglund 39th, both just over three minutes behind the winner.
