• Victory in 50km mass start breaks record from 1980

• Teammates Nyenget and Iversen lock out podium

At the end of one of the great races in the history of the Winter Olympics, there was the greatest athlete in the history of the Winter Olympics. After a little over two hours of racing Johannes Høsflot Klæbo won his sixth gold medal of these Games when he beat his Norwegian teammate Martin Løwstrøm Nyenget by 17.4 seconds to win the men’s 50km classic.

The triumph meant the 29-year-old set the record for the most gold medals in a single Winter Games, set by the US speed skater Eric Heiden when he won five at Lake Placid in 1980. In an age of exaggeration and in an industry that loves overstatement, it is entirely true to say that there has never been anything quite like it.