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By Gavin Kentch
LAGO DI TESERO — Today was not a good day if you are a fan of bunch finishes and a half-dozen men hurtling toward the finish line at once. It was a good day if you are a fan of Norwegian dominance, history being made, or three men from the same country skiing in lockstep with very, very good classic technique.
By the 23-kilometer mark of today’s 50-kilometer classic mass start, the final men’s race of the 2026 Winter Olympics, the trio of Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget, and Emil Iversen had broken away from the pack. Just 2km later their lead over Savelii Korostelev of Russia, competing here as a neutral athlete, was 40 seconds, with only half the race completed. Barring a late-race collapse of epic proportions, this was going to be your final podium, in some order.
That did not happen. Instead, Klæbo happened. Iversen was the first to crack, losing contact with the lead group on the monstrous uphill midway through the seventh and final lap. That left Nyenget and Klæbo going toe-to-toe over the closing three kilometers.
Nyenget gamely threw everything he had at Klæbo. The Trøndelag man kept pace. When the pair was still together with one kilometer left to go, the outcome felt predetermined. Klæbo went on the final climb, of course, in the same place as all the other races, of course, getting a gap and keeping it to the finish, of course. It was a performance no less spectacular for being completely predictable to everyone who saw it: If your competitors know what you’re going to do and you can still do it, that is impressive.
Klæbo took his sixth gold medal of the week, speaking of impressive. Between 2025 World Championships in Trondheim and the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano–Cortina, the man is undefeated in his last twelve global championship races in a row. This is obscene. (Klæbo lost the 50km classic at 2023 world champs in Planica to Pål Golberg, by one second. Otherwise the total would currently stand at fourteen races in a row.)
Klæbo fell to the ground after this one. Perhaps he is human.
Nyenget came in 8.9 seconds later for an extremely well-deserved silver medal. Iversen followed 30.7 seconds in arrears, having, I suspect, lived several lifetimes over the final lap. Korostelev paid for his bravery over the first half of the race with an all-time collapse, fading to finish fifth. Theo Schely of France, who had been roughly 45 seconds back of Korostelev at the start of lap seven, came past him around the 49-kilometer mark to finish fourth.
Korostelev dropped 39 seconds to the Frenchman in one kilometer. He had pushed hard from the start. Impressive stuff.
Klæbo’s margin back to fourth place today was 2:59.7. His winning time in this year’s World Cup sprints in Ruka and Toblach was well less than that, with his time in Trondheim being just a fraction of a second more.
There were two American starters in today’s race, APU teammates Gus Schumacher and Hunter Wonders. “Ben Ogden woke up sick and will not compete in today’s 50k to rest and recover before the last four weeks of World Cup racing,” advised USSS media around 8:30 a.m. this morning.
Schumacher finished 13th today, skiing well to close out a big two weeks for the 25-year-old from Anchorage. “I definitely sort of felt like my energy waned halfway through, and it was a little hard to keep pushing and skiing well,” he candidly said afterwards. “But I feel like I can understand that. Just like it’s been a pretty heavy mental load the last two weeks.”
Wonders came in around ten minutes later in 35th. I regret the access rules that bar me from embedding mixed-zone audio; that could help to convey quite how out of it dude was when he (kindly) spoke with us.
“I’m alive,” he said. “Barely. I didn’t think I was going to finish there for a little while. It was definitely the most boxed I’ve ever been in a race.”
“I’ve never had so many cramps in my life,” Wonders observed. “And it was all firing at different times.”
Skiing is fun.
We will have a full race recap up later tonight. Check back this evening CET for more. And congrats to everyone who survived today.
You’re reading this on Nordic Insights, one man’s labor of love dedicated to publicizing American skiing. We started with nothing and now we’re at the Olympics. You can read more about our first three years here, and donate to the Olympics fund here. Thank you for consideration, and, especially, for reading.
