– Many feel that we are weak without Jarl, and we don’t want any of that. We go out and show what we’re made of today and take the gold. It’s huge, Jørgen Graabak told NRK after securing the Norwegian gold leading in the combined team competition.

The anchor man was never threatened and the Norwegians cheered long before the finish line after Jens Lurås Oftebro almost secured gold with a big jolt in the third stage.

Amidst the cheers, the thoughts of Jarl Magnus Riiber and his teammate who had just contracted the African-coronavirus were on the podium in picture form.

– He is an inspiration in training work and along the way. He’s been pushing us all year to be better, and I think he’s been an inspiration throughout the championship. “He’s not so much with us, but how he attacks the situation he’s in,” said Graabak.

– He was in China in isolation, but he still chose to make the most of the day and make the most of it, Graabak boasted about his team-mate returning home from Beijing on Wednesday.

He gave Riiber his share of the credit for Norway being able to come home from Beijing with two golds and two silvers combined.

– Very inspiring to watch. Had he sat down and took a sip, it would have been difficult for us to find the attack we needed. “It’s been fun to watch, even though we feel sorry for him,” said Graabak.

Grabbak historically

The Norwegian relay team had a brilliant starting point before the cross-country section and were nearly together with the four favorites before starting. Both Norway, Germany and Japan are within twelve seconds of leading Austria in Zhangjiakou.

And the top four really even reached the third stage. There, Olympic silver winner Jens Lurås Oftebro showed incredible strength and created a gap for Norway in the final round.

Anchor Jørgen Graabak increased the lead early on and had complete control of the gold when the contenders stopped short in the final round.

– He will be the all-time combined runner in the context of the Olympics. If Norway goes gold without the combination of the world’s best runners, Jann Post exclaimed.

With gold on Thursday, Graabak passed Eric Frenzel, Felix Gottwald and Samppa Lajunen and became the first combined runner to win four Olympic gold medals.

– It’s a fun statistic. To be honest, I feel very similar to yesterday, but I hear a lot of talk about cool stats so of course it’s something I can look back on when I end my career. “I don’t think I understand everything myself,” Graabak told NRK.

Germany and Vinzenz Geiger sprint in for silver ahead of Japan.

– That was plan A

The gold was Norway’s 14th during the Olympics in Beijing. It was a touch on the gold record that Germany and Norway had during the Olympics in Pyeongchang.

After the finish, a very satisfied sports manager, Ivar Stuan, met with NRK.

– It was plan A all the way. There are four good jumps, and there are four good stages. Then of course the junior, as we still call him, Jens Lurås Oftebro, who gave Jørgen the hold he should have taken out and then the others realized there was no chance, said Stuan.

– What impressed you the most?

– This is team spirit. It’s the whole team, the whole gang. Everyone has stood in it, we have fought throughout the Olympics. I think there are a lot of difficulties, so we only have two gold and two silver. So we have to do pretty well. Then there are some fantastic practitioners who deserve this here, also very sad for Jarl. But he has some very good teammates. They were Olympic champions in team competition, he had a big smile on his face.

– boy’s dream

For today’s big man, Jens Lurås Oftebro, gold came just two days after he took silver in the big hill race. Yesterday he received a medal, and today he was able to step to the top of the podium together with Graabak, Andersen and Bjørnstad.

– It was great to stand on the podium with him yesterday, now we stand on the same steps and win gold together. This is very cool. It’s pretty raw that we’re at the top of medal statistics from Sochi as I thought before the championship was impossible. But we actually managed to do it, said a very satisfied Oftebro.

For Espen Andersen and Espen Bjørnstad, the awards ceremony took place for the first time during the Olympics.

– This is a boy’s dream come true. It really hurts. You probably expected to stay in solitary confinement for ten to twelve days when we came here. That makes it a little bigger and, Andersen thought.