With His Fifth Gold At Milan Cortina 2026, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo Joins Michael Phelps In An Exclusive List

In the heart of Val de Fiemme, Norwegian cross-country skiers Johannes Høsflot Klæbo and Einar Hedegart finished ahead of Gus Schumacher and Ben Ogden to win gold in the men’s team sprint at the Tesero Stadium. With the gold, Klaebo has now won five of the five events he has participated in, taking his total number of golds to ten.

A few days ago, Klaebo had led the Norwegians to a gold in the men’s relay and became the most decorated Winter Olympian, overtaking former cross-country skiers Marit Bjørgen and Bjorn Dæhlie, and biathlete Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who all have eight golds to their name.

He has also become only the second Winter Olympian to record five gold medals in a single edition, the first was US speed skater Eric Heiden in 1980. Klaebo said after winning his fifth gold of the Winter Olympics 2026:

It’s obviously very satisfying to make this happen. The team sprint is one of the most fun events, but also one of the hardest.

With ten gold medals, Klaebo has now joined the legendary swimmer Michael Phelps as the only individuals in history to have a double-digit number of gold medals in the Olympics. Phelps showed his support by commenting a couple of applauding emojis on NBC’s Olympics Instagram post regarding the news. Across five editions from Sydney to Rio, Phelps won 23 golds in a haul that had 28 total medals.

In the 15-team final at the Tesero Stadium, the Italians took the early lead with Elia Barp ahead of France’s Mathis Desloges by the end of the first exchange. Hedegart was third behind Barp and Desloges, but once Klaebo started, the Norwegians took the lead, which they never relinquished. Meanwhile, the French team fell behind with a yellow card.

Behind Norway and the United States of America, Italy bagged bronze, the second medal in cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics 2026.

Klaebo will return once again in the 50km mass start, looking to go 6-for-6 and join yet another exclusive list: individuals with at least six medals at one Olympics. Michael Phelps has done it twice in Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, while Mark Spitz (1972, swimming), Kristin Otto (1988, swimming), and Vitaly Scherbo (1992, gymnastics) have done it once. Furthermore, it would be the first time by a Winter Olympian. Klæbo told NRK:

That’s nice. I haven’t really had time to think much about it. I try to stay focused on what needs to be done. Fortunately, there are two rest days now.

Johannes Høsflot Klæbo now has seven consecutive golds in the team sprint event

Across the World Championships and the Olympics, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo has led Norway to seven consecutive golds. The gold rush started with the PyeongChang Olympics, Klæbo’s maiden one, when he won gold with Martin Johnsrud Sundby.

In the 2019 World Championships at Seefeld in Tirol, Austria, the ten-time gold medalist paired up with Emil Iversen. In Oberstdorf, a couple of years later, he won the event again with Erik Valnes. He later won the men’s sprint at the Beijing Winter Olympics with Valnes, as well as the 2025 FIS World Championships in their home country. In 2023, in Planica, Slovenia, Klæbo won the event alongside Pål Golberg.

In other news, Norway continues to dominate the Winter Olympics medal tally after Day 13.

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