Norway’s Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won the men’s team sprint alongside teammate Einar Hedegart for his fifth gold medal of these Olympics, having moved away from the pack in the final lap of six. The victory brings him one gold medal away from a historic clean sweep of the cross-country events, should he win Saturday’s 50km race.
Klæbo, 29, had already broken the all-time Winter Olympics gold medal record earlier in the Games. Wednesday’s victory marks his 10th gold, two clear of any other athlete. His fifth gold in Milan Cortina ties U.S. speedskater Eric Heiden’s record for most gold medals in a single Winter Olympics.
The team sprint relay consists of six laps, with each athlete alternating to ski three legs each. The U.S. selected Schumacher to complete the anchor leg.
Hedegart gave Klæbo a slim lead entering the sixth lap, but Schumacher put the Norwegian under pressure during the final loop. Cresting the final hill in second, the American then held off Italian cross-country icon Federico Pellegrino to secure silver.
“I think I felt anxiety for the first time in my life,” said the pair’s coach, Matt Whitcomb. “Tightness in my chest for the last several days — we were very nervous today.”
In the 2022 Olympics, Ogden and Schumacher finished ninth in this same event. Four years later, they’ve finished seven better. It’s the first time the U.S. has medaled in the event since Kikkan Randall and Jessie Diggins won a historic gold in the women’s competition in Beijing in 2018.
Randall and Schumacher are both from Alaska, and years ago, Randall gave him a pair of her old poles. Now, the torch — or rather the poles — have officially been passed from Randall, who retired in 2018, and Diggins, who plans to retire at the end of this season, to Ogden and Schumacher.
Schumacher collapsed into the snow after crossing the line, Ogden draping himself over his exhausted teammate. Ogden, meanwhile, said he was too tired himself to celebrate with his signature back somersault off the podium.
“It’s insane,” said Ogden. “Man, we proved today and all week we are here to stay, and the USA guys are in good form, so it was awesome.”
Their success came despite a breakdown in the tactical plan set ahead of the race, in which the pair had planned to meet on the right-hand side of a crowded, chaotic exchange zone.
“Without fail, every single time we came in on the other side and had to cross through like 15 people,” Ogden said. “Between us, we both realised it wasn’t working, but we couldn’t risk going to the left side and having him not see us. So we had to stick with it.”
The U.S. team had raised expectations after qualifying for the final over two seconds clear of Norway earlier in the day, having also delivered the team’s first-ever World Cup podium in the event in Switzerland last month.
Ogden’s form, meanwhile, was self-evident after ending the U.S. cross-country drought last week with a second-place finish in the individual sprint, an emotional moment for a team that has spent years building up its men’s program behind a group of young athletes.
“(Ben) set me up in that last lap perfectly,” Schumacher said. “So I had a pretty simple job to do, and I’m really glad I was able to do that.
“I had to show up today and believe I could do it, look at Klæbo’s butt and lock in and follow that to the finish line. I know I can ski technically just as well as him through the corners, and I felt I came into the hill with good speed.
“I was really proud I was able to stay in striking distance. … I felt pretty calm and light, like I was skiing free today.”
Schumacher had endured a tough start to the Games after crashing in the opening lap of the men’s skiathlon. He also missed out on qualifying for the knockout stages of the individual sprint two days later, while watching Ogden, his roommate at these Olympics, take silver.
“Getting a medal is huge but it’s a product of what I’ve done for the last 10 days,” Schumacher said. “They’ve not been that easy.”
“It’s really hard to have everything come together, and so it’s pretty amazing when it does,” Schumacher’s mother, Amy, told The Athletic in the moments after the medal ceremony. She had been filming the race on FaceTime for Schumacher’s girlfriend.
“I love the idea that you have to feel the lows to feel the highs in life,” Amy said. “Embrace it.”
Ogden’s father, John, died of cancer in 2023. Before he died, he told his son he was capable of racing the best in the world.
“He would send me these texts, or when we’d talk on the phone, he would lump me in with the best in the world. He’d lump me with (Klæbo),” Ogden told The Athletic last week. “He just sort of thought of me and all these top-tier skiers as being sort of the same. And I didn’t believe it at first.”
Klæbo’s family agreed.
“Ben is getting closer and closer and closer,” said the Norwegian’s father, Haakon, after the individual sprint last week. “He’ll beat Johannes one day. I know Johannes was worried in the sprint because of the way he kept looking back at him in the closing sprint. He was really pushing him.”
Ogden will be 30 years old at his next Olympics, Schumacher 29. As the pair prepared to depart for their official press conference, they were asked whether it would be another 50 years before the next U.S. men’s cross-country medal.
“Somebody asked me that last time, and I said no,” Ogden replied, his second silver medal on his chest. “And now here we are, five days later. So, no — I don’t think it’ll be another 50 years.”