No protests or accusations prevented the Norwegians from winning a record number of gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics
Logos Press analyzed the 17 days of the Olympics and drew attention to the events that cast a shadow on the “universal celebration of sports”.
Ski hegemony
Of the 18 gold medals, the vast majority (17) were won by the Norwegians in the skiing disciplines. Johannes Klebo became the record holder.Johannes Klebo became a record-breaker by winning six top medals (two in team events) out of a possible six in cross-country skiing. The 29-year-old has won a total of 11 Olympic gold medals in his career. Prior to the 2026 Games, he reached the top step of the podium three times in Pichang (South Korea) in 2018 and twice in Beijing (China) in 2022.
Jens Oftebro, who won three times in Italy, became the second four-time Olympic champion in the history of Nordic Combined skiing. Johan-Olav Botn and Johannes Dale-Shevdal filled the niche left by Johannes Bø’s retirement from the sport and brought Norway two gold medals in the biathlon competition. Two more medals were won by freestyle skiers Birk Ruud and Tormod Frostad.
Norwegian athletes also contributed to the team victory, although their contribution was more modest. Anna Odine Strøm became a two-time Olympic champion in ski jumping. In cross-country skiing, the women’s team won the only gold medal, winning the 4×7.5km relay. Biathlete Maren Kirkeide was the best in the sprint race.
The only medal in a non-skiing discipline was won by speed skater Sander Eitrem in the 5,000 meters.
Suspicious endurance
The class of the Norwegians particularly caught the eye of the fans during the men’s 50 km classic style ski marathon. The leading Viking trio, led by Klebo, did not change skis before the last lap, although this practice is widespread over such long distances. Due to prolonged friction on the snow, the skiing and gliding ointments wear off and skiing becomes a “walk”. Even the best quality ointments last no more than 15 km, and even faster when the snow temperature is above 0℃.
On the last day of the Olympics, when the men’s ski marathon was held, the weather was warm in the Val di Fiemme valley. Consequently, the skis wore out faster, and to maintain their progress, all the athletes who claimed high positions changed them two or three times during the course. All athletes except Johannes Klebo, Martin Lövström Nyengeth and Emil Iversen, who managed to cover 50 km on one pair of skis in a phenomenal way.
After the marathon, the sports community started talking about the use of fluoride lubricants by the Norwegian athletes’ ski technicians, a technique that had been banned for four seasons.
The International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and the International Biathlon Union (IBU) have decided to introduce a complete ban on the use of fluorinated ointments and paraffins because of their high environmental hazard and toxicity. Once in the snow, fluorine-based compounds do not decompose, causing damage to soils and water bodies.
Since the ban was introduced in the 2023/24 season, only the Norwegian and Swedish federations have been suspected of violating the ban. A major scandal occurred at the Nordic Cross-Country Skiing Cup in early 2022, when representatives of these two countries were accused of using compounds with a higher fluorine content – C8. Although the full FIS and IBU ban was not yet in force at the time, compounds containing C8 were banned from production, sale and use by European Commission regulation.
The Norwegian and Swedish Ski Federations were only publicly censured and no sanctions were imposed on them. However, this was a clear indication that in the pursuit of high performance of their athletes, officials from the two Scandinavian countries are willing to disregard European regulations.
The suspiciously long endurance of the Norwegian athletes’ skis at the 2026 Olympics may indicate that banned fluoride compounds were used in their preparation. For this reason, all other participants of the race were put in unequal conditions with the Norwegians. And the winner’s three-minute advantage over France’s Theo Chely, who finished fourth, is clear evidence that the sporting component in the enormous gap by ski standards is not high.
FIS has made no comment on these suspicions. The organization has resigned itself to a state of affairs in which the athletes from all other countries are a priori thrown out of the fight for medals, and not at all on sporting principles.
Protests without reaction
During the sprint race, the coaches of Finland, Sweden and Germany noticed that the Norwegian maintenance crews were using a special device that allowed them to apply liquid ointment to the skis faster. This is a ski drill with roller attachments, which allows the skis to be prepared much faster than by hand.
Representatives of the three national teams were outraged that they were not notified of the permissibility of the automated device. FIS Race Director Michal Lamplot admitted the mistake, but it would be incorrect to ask the Norwegians for their diligence.
The Finns did not stop there and filed a protest against the Norwegian and US teams, in whose service areas they saw bottles with the inscription “Hand sanitizer”. In their opinion, the contents did not correspond at all to the declared inscription. There was no public response from the FIS to this protest.
The Finnish team filed another protest against Norway. Before the men’s 4×7.5 km relay race, the Finns were caught by a member of the Norwegian team’s maintenance crew who tested the skis when the regulations prohibit it – just before the start of the race.
FIS reacted to this protest by depriving the Norwegian team of one member of the delegation until the end of the next race. Considering how large the Norwegian delegation is in ski racing, the FIS sanction is perceived as nothing more than a “mosquito bite”.
The exes are hiding something
The departure from the Norwegian national team of a number of leaders in ski disciplines raises additional questions. It is obvious that the “sporting age” of these athletes is not over. Five-time Olympic champion, biathlete Johannes Bø announced the end of his professional career less than a year before the Olympic Games, at the age of 31.
He explained his decision by “the impossibility of combining family life with a busy competition schedule.” This explanation seems ridiculous, considering that at the time he was the leader of the world men’s biathlon. There must have been much better reasons to announce the end of a highly successful career a year before the Olympics.
Last October, Norwegian skier and world champion Helene Fossesholm also announced her retirement from professional sport. At the age of 24, having been in good shape before the start of the season, she declared a lack of motivation and her intention to change her occupation. Fossesholm sees herself as a doctor, she intended to pursue a higher medical degree.
Both athletes are often associated with medicine, or rather with its “dark side”. It is a well-known fact that Johannes Bø, as well as many other Norwegian skiers and biathletes, in the form of therapeutic exceptions were given drugs for asthma. Salbutamol – a bronchodilator drug for asthma, which allows to significantly increase ventilation of the lungs and facilitate physical activity – is most often mentioned in this regard. It is also known that the therapeutic exemptions were granted with the authorization of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
Fossesholm, on the other hand, received growth hormones as a child and teenager, which was recognized by the Norwegian Ski Federation. She and another skier Kristina Stavos Schistad took the hormones ethinylestradiol and primolut with the permission of WADA, although their detection in the blood athletes face disqualification for at least four years. In addition, the use of these drugs at an early age can have serious consequences, including blood clotting difficulties, blocked blood vessels, gallstones and depression.
South Korea is not getting off scot-free
Skiers Han Da-som and Lee Ii-chin, representing South Korea, were disqualified from Olympic competition. They failed to qualify for the finals after being eliminated in one of the preliminary stages, but after the final heat, a banned fluoride gel was found in their equipment. The athletes’ results were canceled. No further action against them has yet been reported.
The team, which traditionally does not claim high places in cross-country skiing, got “under the FIS’ hand” at a time when the national team, whose methods of fighting for medals with each Olympics raise more and more questions, remains unpunished. And unthinkable superiority, which cannot be explained by any sporting principles, is obliged to be perceived by the whole sporting world as something in the order of things.
| TOP-10 of the final medal standings
XXV Olympic Winter Games |
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| № | National team | Gold medals | Silver medals | Bronze medals | Total |
| 1 | Norway | 18 | 12 | 11 | 41 |
| 2 | U.S. | 12 | 12 | 9 | 33 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 10 | 7 | 3 | 20 |
| 4 | Italy | 10 | 6 | 4 | 30 |
| 5 | Germany | 8 | 10 | 8 | 26 |
| 6 | France | 8 | 9 | 6 | 23 |
| 7 | Sweden | 8 | 6 | 4 | 18 |
| 8 | Switzerland | 6 | 9 | 8 | 23 |
| 9 | Austria | 5 | 8 | 5 | 18 |
| 10 | Japan | 5 | 7 | 12 | 24 |
| Total | 90/116 | ||||
