Estonian skiers 15th, 29th in marathon dominated by Norway's Johannes Høsflot Kläbo
Estonian cross-country skier Alvar Johannes Alev finished 15th in the men's 50-kilometer classic marathon Saturday, one of the final events of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
His compatriot Martin Himma finished 29th. For both athletes, this was a career-best Olympic result.
Norway's Johannes Høsflot Kläbo took an unprecedented 11th Winter Olympic gold as Norway swept the podium in taking silver and bronze too.
He now has 13 Olympic medals. The only athlete with more Olympic victories is American swimming legend Michael Phelps, who won all eight events at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and took 23 medals across his career.
At the Milano Cortina Games, Kläbo had already won all five men's events and had a chance to make it six out of six.
Kläbo still faced strong competition in Saturday's marathon. His main rivals included compatriots Harald Östberg Amundsen (no relation to the famous Arctic and Antarctic explorer – ed.), Martin Löwström Nyenget and Emil Iversen. France's Mathis Desloges, who won three silvers at the Milano Cortina Games, was also one to watch.
Alev wore bib 22 and Himma bib 33 among the 65 men on the start line.
Alev skied strongly and stayed around the top 20 for much of the distance. In the final kilometers he pushed forward to take 15th place (+8:02.5), the best Olympic individual result of his career. Himma remained in the fourth ten for most of the race but pushed hard in the closing kilometers to finish 29th (+14:28.4), also his best Olympic individual result.
With Amundsen retiring and Finland's Iivo Niskanen, who won Olympic gold eight years earlier in Pyeongchang, also dropping out, Kläbo ultimately won in 2:06:44.8. Nyenget finished 8.9 seconds behind to take silver and Iversen was another 30.7 seconds back in bronze.
Keidy Kaasiku 13th in women's cross-country ski marathon won by Sweden's Ebba Andersson
Estonian sisters Keidy and Kaidy Kaasiku also skied well, finishing 13th and 20th in the women's mass start 50 km event Sunday, won by Sweden's Ebba Andersson.
The two sisters, along with Teesi Tuul, were the last Estonian athletes to compete at the Milano Cortina Games. Team Estonia took home one medal — a silver won by freestyle skier Henry Sildaru Friday night.
Kaidy Kaasiku wore bib 25, Keidy bib 30 and Tuul bib 36. A total of 45 competitors were on the start line, including three previous Olympic medalists: Finland's Krista Pärmakoski, who won marathon silver in Pyeongchang in 2018; American Jessie Diggins, silver medalist in Beijing four years ago; and Kerttu Niskanen, another Finn who took bronze in the same race.
Sweden's chances of adding more medals suffered a blow Sunday morning. Two-time gold medalist Frida Karlsson and classical sprint silver medalist Jonna Sundling both missed the race due to illness. France's Julie Pierrel and Katherine Sauerbrey, who won Olympic relay silver with Germany four years ago, also did not start.
This left the 28-year-old Andersson as Sweden's main hope.
Meanwhile, the Norwegians turned up in force. All four Olympic relay champions — Kristin Austgulen Fosnäs, Astrid Öyre Slind, Karoline Simpson-Larsen and Heidi Weng — started Sunday.
Keidy Kaasiku achieved the best result among Estonia's cross-country skiers at the Games, finishing 13th (+12:26.1 after race winner Andersson). Kaidy Kaasiku also skied strongly to finish 20th (+17:03.8), while Teesi Tuul placed 31st (+22:39.3).
Russian skier Darja Neprjajeva, competing under a neutral flag, was disqualified after taking another competitor's skis. Her exclusion bumped the Estonians up one place.
Andersson set the pace from the start and only Weng kept up — the gap was just one second at halfway.
She then pulled away from the field. After five kilometers Andersson led by 9.6 seconds, five kilometers later by half a minute, and at the 40-kilometer mark by a full minute.
Andersson crossed the finish line in splendid isolation to secure her first Olympic victory with a time of 2:16:28.2. She had won relay silver eight years ago in Pyeongchang, relay bronze four years later in Beijing, and had already collected three silvers at this year's Milano Cortina Olympics.
Weng finished 2 minutes and 15.3 seconds later, where Andersson embraced her. The battle for bronze was extremely tight, with six women separated by just six seconds with 1.5 kilometers remaining. Ultimately, Switzerland's Nadja Kälin (+6:41.5) came out on top of that group.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
