Klaebo, already the most successful man in the sport with 107 World Cup wins, stayed patient until the final kilometer, where he pushed ahead and left France’s Mathis Desloges and fellow Norwegian Martin Nyenget behind to battle it out in a photo finish for silver and bronze.
“I’m really, really satisfied and happy for sure about the performance,” Klaebo said. “It’s been a lot of nerves before this race, and I really felt like I wanted to do well here, and my body feels good, we had good skis, and it was an amazing day.”
Just edged out of the top three was Savelii Korostelev, who is from Russia but competing as an Individual Neutral Athlete, as Russian athletes remain banned from competing under their own flag at the Olympics due to the war in Ukraine.
Considering Norway’s men hold the top six spots in the World Cup distance rankings, a podium sweep wasn’t out of the question. But they fell short, with the next Norwegian, Harald Oestberg Amundsen, finishing in sixth place.
The snow remained soft and wet Sunday, carrying over from the women’s event the day before, which posed a challenge for wax techs and athletes navigating the slush. Multiple athletes crashed on the same turn that got American Jessie Diggins and other women on Saturday. Americans Gus Schumacher and Zak Ketterson, 24th and 43rd, respectively, got caught in a pileup along with other athletes at that corner, with Ketterson breaking a pole and needing to get a new one partway through the race.
“I was hopeful in the guys’ race that they would be a little better at it, but coming into it, everyone just started snowplowing and freaking out,” Ketterson said.
“It was just a s—show on that first corner.”
Klaebo sat back for portions of the race, letting others lead the front pack but staying within striking distance throughout the 10 km of classic skiing and 10 km of skate skiing that make up the skiathlon. But those who watch Klaebo know his status as the top contender is rarely in doubt, and he showed that Sunday, making his move on the final climb and leaving no question about his status as the favorite at these Games. He finished with a time of 46:11.0.
Still, it’s Klaebo’s first Olympic medal in the skiathlon. If there’s any redemption arc for the world’s best men’s cross-country skier, it’s that he finished 40th in the skiathlon at the 2022 Olympics.
The Norwegian now needs three more gold medals or five of any color to break the Olympic record, held by countryman Bjørn Daehlie. Daehlie, who last competed at the 1998 Nagano Games, won 12 medals, eight of them gold, during his Olympic career. Klaebo won three golds in Pyeongchang in 2018 and two golds, one silver and one bronze in Beijing in 2022.
With six Olympic cross-country skiing events, a golden sweep isn’t completely out of the question — Klaebo did that in six events at the Nordic Ski World Championships in 2025.
Next up is Tuesday’s men’s and women’s sprint.