Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo is officially 6 for 6: He’s won gold in all six of his cross-country events at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Norway’s 29-year-old Olympic legend entered rare air with one more signature kick on Saturday.
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Klaebo overtook teammate Martin Loewstroem Nyenget on the final lap of the men’s 50-kilometer mass start, climbing with a frenetic burst almost unfathomable after more than two hours of skiing.
He finished in 2:06:44, clinching his sixth gold medal of this year’s Olympics, the most ever recorded by an athlete at a single Winter Games.
Norway swept the event, with Nyenget taking silver and Emil Iversen earning bronze.
Klaebo now has 11 career gold medals, the second most all time in Olympic history. In that regard, Klaebo trails only U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all-time.
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For some more context, here’s where that haul ranks Klaebo among the most golden Olympic athletes, according to NBC:
1. Michael Phelps (swimming, U.S.): 23 gold medals
2. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo (cross-country skiing, Norway): 11
T-3. Larisa Latynina (gymnastics, Soviet Union): 9
T-3. Katie Ledecky (swimming, U.S.): 9
T-3. Paavo Nurmi (athletics, Finland): 9
T-3. Mark Spitz (swimming, U.S.): 9
T-3. Caeleb Dressel (swimming, U.S.): 9
T-3. Carl Lewis (athletics, U.S.): 9
In other words, Phelps and Klaebo are the only two athletes to ever win at least 10 Olympic gold medals. With Saturday’s triumph, Klaebo joined Phelps, Spitz and another swimmer, German Kristin Otto (represented East Germany), plus Belarusian gymnast Vitaly Scherbo (represented the Commonwealth of Independent States), as Olympians with at least six gold medals at a single Games, per ESPN.
Phelps, of course, won eight golds during the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
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Klaebo’s six golds in one Winter Games broke a 46-year-old record that American speed skater Eric Heiden set during the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics.
Heiden won five golds that year. All of them were in individual events, whereas Klaebo won two of his golds in this year’s Olympics in team events.
In his third Olympics, Klaebo’s efforts are a big reason why Norway has 18 gold medals in this these Games, the most a country has ever recorded in a single Winter Olympics.
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