Oftebro snatches Olympic hat-trick in exciting Nordic Combined finale

Jens Luraas Oftebro won a tight finish in the Team Sprint for Norway against Finland’s Eero Hirvonen in the final Nordic Combined event, to win his third gold at Milano Cortina 2026 at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium on Thursday.

Oftebro secured his fourth Olympic gold total to equal hero Joergen Graabak’s (NOR) Nordic Combined record, and helped team-mate Andreas Skoglund to his first Olympic medal.

Hirvonen kept with Oftebro to the end to cross the line just 0.5 seconds behind, to win silver with partner Ilkka Herola for Finland. It was a tense finish with Oftebro briefly looking like he may fall as Hirvonen applied the pressure, which was the first time at these Games that an Oftebro gold had looked in doubt.

Johannes Lamparter then crossed the line 22.3 seconds later for bronze, after his partner Stefan Rettenegger fell after the 12km point.

An exciting tactical race ensued in the second half of the 4 x 7.5km, which was the first Team Sprint format to be contested at a Winter Olympics, with several falls in difficult conditions with the snowfall, which the athletes also had to negotiate in the Ski Jumping earlier in the day.

On equalling Graabak’s Nordic combined record of four Olympic golds, Oftebro said: “It is nothing I would have expected to do this time. I was maybe hoping to do it in 2030 or 2034 but to do it now already is unexpected and a dream come true."

Skoglund said of winning his first Olympic medal: “It was really fun to go ski today, it was hard conditions and I have a great team-mate to ski with.”

Hirvonen was up for the challenge of going up against Oftebro, and having made a brilliant effort to overtake him on the final sprint, struggled to be satisfied with silver having come so close to winning gold.

“Of course it was our goal to get this medal and it’s special to win it together, but for me, I’m a bit disappointed about my last sprint there because the gold was so close,” Hirvonen said.

“I feel like I had really good energy and I could maybe be in a better position if I had done something different,” added Hirvonen.

“It was a difficult race and we had to be careful all the time and not make any mistakes. We need to be happy with this.”

Rettenegger, who managed to make the podium behind Finland despite his fall, said: “It was a tricky day today but I’m really really happy with my first medal.

“It’s been tough on the hill, I felt really good in the race and then I crashed, so a lot of adrenaline but I’m really happy that I could keep it cool and just focus, a really nice day for me today and really happy with the bronze.”

Despite Johannes Rydzek and Vinzenz Geiger enjoying a great Ski Jumping competition round with 246 combined points at the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium to give them a 13 seconds head start over Norway for start of the Sprint race, the Germans finished the competition in fifth, 1:06 minutes behind.

Geiger had fallen victim to the bad weather conditions with a fall just after the seventh exchange at 10.5km, with Japan’s Ryota Yamamoto then crashing into him, before Geiger fell again just after getting up from his first fall. This ruined Germany’s chances of a medal, leaving him and Rydzek with too much time to make up.

Conversely, the host nation started in 11th and 1:26 minutes behind but finished ahead of Germany in fourth, after they made their move with Samuel Costa pushing on in the second half of the Sprint race to close the gap on the leaders.

This was a great result for him and his Italian team-mate Aaron Kostner, as Costa had come out of retirement to compete at Milano Cortina as he lives only an hour away from the Olympic venue, so will be happy to now end his career on a high having made his mark at his final Winter Games.

For results of the Nordic Combined Team Sprint click here.

Up Next: As the Team Sprint wraps up a clean sweep of Winter Olympic Games golds for Norway’s Jens Luraas Oftebro in three days of action at the Predazzo and Tesero Stadiums at Milano Cortina 2026, the season continues as athletes will again compete for podium places at the FIS Nordic Combined World Cup. The World Cup events will resume in Kulm, Austria, with the Provisional Round of the Large Hill on 26 February.