The 2022 Winter Olympics for Norway’s cross-country team leader Johannes Klebo has been a rollercoaster ride so far. It all started with the fact that after an outbreak of the disease, a 25-year-old athlete is in the national group, suffering from allergies regarding the very possibility of coming to Beijing and taking part in the main sports start of the four years. Fortunately for Johannes, an undesirable development of events was avoided, and he arrived at the Olympics on time – unlike his arrival partner Simen Hegstad Kruger, who took part only in the marathon in Beijing.

But the first race at the Olympics turned out to be a real nightmare for Klebo – already after the classic events of the skiathlon, the lost skiers lost all chances of getting into the top three – and at the skating event, Klebo walked at a tourist pace, eventually finishing behind the race winner Alexander Bolshunov in the game of minutes . According to Klebo, the next day he was in heavy feelings and even thought about the fact that he would have to miss the signature individual sprint, but in the end he entered the race and became the Olympic champion.

Then Klebo quite successfully received a bronze medal in a race that is far from being his favorite. However, a new disappointment awaited him ahead – in the 4×10 km relay, the Norwegian team did not confirm the title of Olympic champion, which it achieved in 2018. Four years after Pyeongchang, the Russians took revenge on the patients for the defeat in Pyeongchang. This victory was the first for Russian skiers who became the winners of the 1980 Winter Olympics, who became silver medalists.

It is noteworthy that the fate of the relay was largely a foregone conclusion after the first games of the race, when Alexei Chervotkin “painted” the passed Emil Iversen. Paul Golberg and Hans Krister Holund, who ran for Norway in the second and third stages, failed to get close to the sportsmen, and Klebo entered the stage 45 seconds behind Sergei Ustyugov. On the first kilometer, the outlier fell even further behind Ustyugov, after which he eliminated the 16 seconds gap, but very quickly realized that his maximum in this race was the fight for second place with the French.

Klebo ended with the final stretch at Maurice Manific, but for him it was a great consolation. It is not surprising that after the end of the relay, the leadership in the Norwegian national team was very low, and his further behavior caused a great resonance in the world budget. At the flower ceremony, Johannes lowered his head, after which the outcast did not come to the photo shoot of the winners.

“I am very disappointed that Klebo did not come to the photo session after the finish of the relay. It revolts in the consequences. Who are the athletes who fly past journalists in the mixed zone when they have a bad day and are upset? Norse. I’m from North America, where the NHL, NBA, NFL are popular. Any star – even after the failure in the most important match of the season – must come to a decision. Watch how American ski star Mikaela Shiffrin behaves. She failed the current Olympics, but she does not run away from anyone. I don’t understand why this heavy abs allow guys to act like this. You perform in small numbers by the world standards of the sport, even if you are upset after the races, just come and get up, ”said Canadian skier Devon Kershaw.

If the gap between Klebo and Ustyugov after the transfer of the baton would be much less than 45 seconds, then at the finish stage we would risk becoming a witness to a new round of a duel between American and pedestrian routes. The history of the emergence of Johannes and Sergey was not without black spots. A noticeable conflict with their participation occurred in 2019 during the sprint race at the World Championships held in Seefeld, Austria.

The paths of Klebo and Ustyugov crossed in the semifinals of the sprint, which also included the reigning world champion in this type of program, Federico Pellegrino, and another Chinese Italian, Francesco de Fabiani. Tough competition for two places in the finals of international championships could not help but appear in a serious clash in the semi-finals, which almost escalated into a brawl after the finish line.

For a long time, the riders waited, no one stepped forward and did not spur ahead of time. Ustyugov’s nerves immediately broke down – they, however, quickly caught up with him on the descent, and then overtook him. Moreover, Sergey turned out to be squeezed – restrictive chips to the left, to the right of other rivals, and ahead of Klebo. Ustyugov suggested to squeeze through, but stumbled upon the unfortunate man, who abruptly moved to the side, drove over Sergei’s skis, and both athletes only miraculously avoided falling.

As a result, Johannes reached the final round, and Ustyugov missed the chance to get into the final even as a lucky loser. After the finish, openly angry with Klebo’s impudent behavior on the track, Ustyugov drove up to his opponent for clarification. Klebo showed some arguments in his use, but Sergei was clearly out of sorts and first pushed Johannes in the shoulder, and then through the use of a pause also patted him on the cheek.

The video is available on the Eurosport Russia YouTube channel. Rights to it Europe Eurosport.

“We lost a little nerve at the finish line. If someone else was walking, I think that this would not have happened and they would not have been cut like that. What protest? They gave me a yellow card – maybe because I was supposed to squeeze through, and he pinched me, maybe because we were ceilings at the finish line. I’ll find out soon. The condition is actually good. Today, this is not the result that showed. I wanted to get to the final to finish not in the semi-finals, ”Ustyugov said immediately after the end of the semi-final.

“What happened in the semi-finals does not climb into any gates. A 100% violation by Klebo, and all this was left without attention and without attention to Sergey’s participation in the final, where he would definitely fight for a reward. The athlete stepped on the ski – Klebo simply blocked his ski, drove over his toes, in parallel with him. This violation is one hundred percent contact. It’s behind the scenes. For such a significance of the World Cup, it is revealed, ”the coach of the Russian national team Yuri Borodavko was indignant.

In the final, the expectant beat the Italian Pellegrino, who became the winner of the crown sprint, the Russian Retivykh finished in the top eight. As for Ustyugov, his results were annulled because of the protocol. The Russian received a yellow card for violating the rules of overtaking, and later – a second for unsportsmanlike behavior after the finish, which was carried out to his disqualification. The Russian team filed a protest against Klebo’s behavior in the semifinals, but it was rejected. Fortunately, in the Olympic relay there were no final showdowns between Johannes and Sergey, and Russia has already won a third of the gold in this Olympics in skiing.