ZHANGJIAKOU: Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo is still the fastest man on the sprint course.
The Norwegian cross-country skier defended his Olympic sprint title at the Beijing Games on Tuesday, leading the final for the entire race and punching the air when he crossed the finish line.
Klaebo won the race in 2 minutes, 58.06 seconds. Frederico Pellegrino of Italy took silver, 26 seconds behind. Russian skier Alexander Terenteva earned bronze, 1.31 behind.
In the women's sprint, Jonna Sundling of Sweden went into the final wearing bib No.1 after qualifying with the fastest time and carried that momentum to the finish line. She won the race in 3:09.68, finishing 2.88 seconds ahead of teammate Maja Dahlqvist.
Jessie Diggins of the United States took bronze, 3.16 seconds behind. It was Diggins' second Olympic medal. She won gold in the team sprint at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games — a first for the United States.
Diggins' teammate, Rosie Brennan, was just behind in fourth on Tuesday. Sundling is a first-time Olympian but has two world championship sprint titles, and team sprint titles with Dahlqvist.