“Thank you Sverre Lunde Pedersen! Thank you Håvard Bøkko! Thank you Simen Spieler Nilsen!” shrieked speed skating commentator Carl Andreas Wold after Norway’s men’s speed skating team won the Men’s Team Pursuit at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Not only that: They set a new Olympic record in the semi-final that knocked out the reigning Dutch champions.
It proved to be another incredible day for Norway at the Olympics in South Korea, with Norwegian athletes seemingly as blown away as spectators and commentators. The speed skating team glided to victory just hours after the men’s cross-country team won gold in an Olympic sprint.
“This is almost sick, OL gold in skating too!” exclaimed Norwegian skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo who’s been a star himself at the Winter Games. He was watching it on TV and listening to NRK’s commentators follow what became another thrilling Olympic event.
“Things are really meshing right now,” Klæbo said. “This is helt rått!” (That literally translates to “completely raw,” but is extremely positive in Norwegian.)
Norway hasn’t done well in speed skating at the Olympics since Johann Olav Koss won gold at Lillehammer in 1994. The team has been rebuilding over the past few years, with new young talent not least in the form of Håvard Holmefjord Lorentzen, who won gold himself earlier this week.
Now his teammates have done the same, stunning the skating world and beating the host nation South Korea, which took silver. The Netherlands won bronze. Norway’s latest gold medal brings its trove up to 13, plus another 20 in silver and bronze.
newsinenglish.no staff