Jarl Magnus Riiber should win a medal for Olympic misery

Norway’s Jarl Magnus Riiber had the gold medal sewn up before he skied the wrong way.

Norway's Jarl Magnus Riiber held a seemingly unbeatable lead in the Nordic combined until he skied the wrong way Picture: AFP

The only thing you need to know about Jarl Magnus Riiber to understand what happened to him on Tuesday is that when it comes to the sport of Nordic combined, there is Jarl Magnus Riiber and there is everyone else.

“He’s probably going to go down as the best Nordic combined skier ever,” NBC analyst Johnny Spillane said before the Winter Games. “If he has a good day, he’s pretty much unstoppable.”

He hasn’t had many good days in Beijing. At one of the bleakest Olympics ever, Riiber would easily medal in misery. After testing positive for Covid-19 on his arrival, the Norwegian spent his Games alone in a Chinese hotel. He missed his first event and every training session. He finally cleared isolation on Monday afternoon in time to fly 140 meters and then cross-country ski for 10 kilometres on Tuesday.

“I didn’t feel so good yesterday,” Riiber said after his ski jump. “I’m feeling good today (Tuesday).”

He wouldn’t be having a good day for much longer. What happened next was a gaffe that will go down in Nordic combined lore.

As he entered the first of four 2.5-kilometre loops of the unfamiliar course, Riiber came to a fork. To the left was the cross-country circuit. To the right was the path to the finish line. Riiber, who hadn’t had a chance to practice on the Olympic track, sped toward the snow-covered lanes separated only by some low cones and a small sign. He picked the lane on the right.

He picked wrong.

“What a mistake!” shouted the announcers on one European broadcast. “Has the cold paralysed his brain?” Riiber travelled around 50 yards before realising his blunder and turned around. He needed to ski back to the sign and slot into the correct lane. But by then the damage was done. He had frittered away his lead and finished in eighth place.

Riiber is dominant in the ski jump section of Nordic combined Picture: AFP

“It’s a silly mistake,” Riiber said, “and it’s not fun to show the world that I’m maybe wasting a gold medal on that.” It would have gone down as a once-in-a-lifetime error for a star of his calibre except for one tiny detail: Riiber has done this before.

Back in 2016, an 18-year-old Riiber was racing at a World Cup in Lahti, Finland and already showing signs that he could dominate the sport. He’d owned the jumping portion, just as he would in Beijing, and flown out to an early lead in the cross-country race. But once he hit the stadium, the directionally challenged Nordic combined legend took a wrong turn and never had a chance to correct his mistake. He was disqualified and Germany’s Eric Frenzel came through to take the victory.

One of the more bizarre things about his unfortunate Olympic gaffe is that he basically predicted it. Riiber is such a powerful ski jumper compared with others in Nordic combined that he bought himself a 44-second lead in the cross-country race, a seemingly insurmountable start that usually leads to Riiber winning, as long as doesn’t lead himself the wrong way on an unfamiliar course. But in between the jump and his ski, he felt something was off.

“I’m probably not in such good shape for the cross-country part,” Riiber said before the cross-country part.

As it turned out, the problem wasn’t his legs or his lungs. It was his concentration. Joergen Graabak, the Norwegian who eventually overtook Riiber and grabbed his gold medal, couldn’t believe what was happening. As the gap disappeared, he was convinced that Riiber had suffered some sort of catastrophic injury. He was relieved to hear that it was only a horrible error.

“Of course, I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, to go wrong at the Olympics, ” the gold medallist said.

The Wall Street Journal