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Norway won Olympic gold in the Nordic combined team competition on Thursday, overcoming the COVID-related loss of Jarl Magnus Riiber.
The team of four-time Olympic gold medalist Joergen Graabak, Jens Luraas Oftebro, Espen Bjoernstad and Espen Andersen pulled away late in the cross-country race, winning by 54.9 seconds.
It was an impressive result after Riiber, a three-time champion, went home earlier in the day.
"Jarl texted me quite soon after the race (Tuesday) and he told me to get ready," Bjoernstad said.
Riiber took the wrong turn early in a 10K cross-country race and lost a large lead he earned in ski jumping on Tuesday, a day after getting out of COVID isolation.
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That mistake helped Graabak win gold, making him the first two-time Nordic combined Olympic champion on the large hill after winning the event in 2014.
Graabak also helped Norway win the team event eight years ago and with another first-place finish, he's the first to win four Olympic gold meals in the sport that combines ski jumping and cross-country skiing.
Germany won silver, earning an Olympic medal for the sixth straight time in the team event. Japan finished third, getting an Olympic medal in a Nordic combined competition for the first time since winning gold at the 1994 Lillehammer Games.
Austria could not keep the eight-second lead it earned in ski jumping, or the advantage it had on the cross-country course midway through the race and finished fourth. The traditional power failed to medal for the first time since 1994.
Austrian jumpers combined for 475.4 points earlier in the day thanks to jaw-dropping distances and graceful style through the air. That gave them the lead for the cross-country ski race with four skiers racing 5K each.
Norway’s four-man team started second, followed closely by Germany and Japan.
Franz-Josef Rehrl helped Austria start strong, turning an eight-second lead into 19 seconds at the 2.5K mark.
Manuel Faisst of Germany, who replaced Terence Weber after he tested positive for COVID-19 and didn’t recover quickly, rallied to put his team in the lead at the first exchange five kilometers into the 20K race. Top-ranked Johannes Lamparter gave Austria a slim lead at the midway mark and teammate Lukas Greiderer maintained it before the Norwegians took over.
Graabak closed with a strong performance over the final five kilometers to put Norway on the top spot on the podium, inspired to bring home gold for Riiber.
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