Frenchman Mathis Desloges finished second on Friday in the 10 km individual free cross-country skiing race, winning his second silver medal at the 2026 Olympics. Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo won this race and thus equaled the record of eight gold medals won at the Winter Olympics. He has three races left to beat him.
Published on: 02/13/2026 - 1:09 p.m. Modified on: 02/13/2026 - 2:21 p.m.
Norwegian cross-country skier Johannes Klaebo has tied the record of eight gold medals at the Winter Olympics in all sports. On Friday February 13, he won a third title at the Milan Cortina Olympics, winning the 10 km individual freestyle ahead of Frenchman Mathis Desloges.
Already a silver medalist in the skiathlon on Sunday, Desloges achieved an unprecedented performance for a French cross-country skier with two individual medals, and this for his first Olympic Games at the age of 23.
The Norwegian Einar Hedegart, who won the two races of this type organized this season in the World Cup, pocketed bronze.
“I have never skied so fast in my life”
The insatiable Klaebo therefore joins three compatriots at the summit of Olympus: the ex-cross-country skiers Marit Bjoergen and Bjoern Daehlie and the former biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen. There are still three races left on the program, including two team races, to try to beat this record.
Desloges, for his part, continues to surprise. Before him, only one French cross-country skier had won an individual silver medal at the Olympics, Roddy Darragon, second in the sprint at the Turin Games twenty years ago.
At 23, Desloges already has two and it's not over for the Isérois who was barely realizing his new feat after the race.
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"It's crazy, I can't believe it. I know I've never skied so fast in my life. It's French cross-country skiing which is growing day by day. Today we showed that we were up to the task and that we were among the best nations in the world. We're expecting many of you on Sunday, because we're going to go for the relay, and it's going to be a medal," he reacted to France Télévisions.
“I will train hard to beat him one day”
“I was in the spirit of bringing home a medal, I knew I had the level, I showed it in the skiathlon. I knew I had the legs for the medal. Silver medal, I will come back for gold, I will train hard to be the best,” continued the young Frenchman.
In this time trial format race, Desloges finished just behind the absolute reference in world cross-country skiing, Klaebo. “I will train hard to beat him one day,” he promised.
With AFP
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