Relay (4 × 7.5 kilometres), Men

This was the fourth men’s cross-country event on the Milano-Cortina 2026 programme, and the only question was, “Who would finish second behind Norway?” Norway was led by the greatest cross-country skier in the world, Johannes Høsflot Klæbo, who already had won three gold medals in Trentino. In the 10 km freestyle, Norway had finished 1-3-4-5, as Einar Hedegart won bronze, followed by Harald Amundsen and Martin Nyenget. France and Italy were considered the best bets for the other medals.

Amundsen did not start for Norway, who opened with Emil Iversen. Iversen had the fastest opening leg, taking a slight lead over America’s Ben Ogden and Italy’s Davide Graz. Iversen handed off to Nyenget, who also skied the fastest second leg, and the race for gold was effectively over, especially with Klæbo skiing the anchor. Norway would eventually win gold by over 20 seconds, although Hedegart and Klæbo were never pressed on their legs.

After two legs, Finland was in second with Italy third, while France was fourth. Mathis Desloges skied the fastest third leg, however, to move France into second, and they would maintain that with Victor Lovera skiing the anchor to bring France the silver medal. Italy dropped back to fourth on the penultimate leg but, on the anchor, Federico Pellegrino had the fastest final leg and brought Italy onto the podium in third place, passing Finland for the bronze medal.

With his fourth gold medal at the 2026 Olympic Winter Games, Klæbo became only the fifth Winter Olympian to win that many golds at a single celebration, after Eric Heiden in 1980 speed skating (with 5 golds), and Lidiya Skoblikova in 1964 speed skating, and Norwegian biathletes [Ole Einar Bjørndalen] in 2002 and Johannes Thingnes Bø in 2022, all three with four. There was more to come.