Amid the triumphs, failures and broken medals in Milano Cortina, here’s our countdown of the outstanding moments that will live long in the memory
Cheating has been part and parcel of the Olympics since at least Eupolus of Thessaly in 388BC. But crooked boxers from ancient Greece never confessed their indiscretions on live television. Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid did exactly that after winning bronze in the men’s 20km biathlon for his first individual Olympic medal, publicly admitting he’d two-timed his girlfriend three months earlier and calling it “my biggest mistake” in an overshare for the ages carried live by national broadcaster NRK. Lægreid’s shot appeared to have missed the target one day later when the wronged party, wishing to remain anonymous, told the Norwegian paper VG it was “hard to forgive” what he did.
Every Olympics produces at least one breakout star. Few of them, however, arrive on four legs. Nazgul, a two-year-old Czechoslovakian wolfdog who lives at a nearby hotel in Tesero, burst on to the course during the women’s cross-country team sprint qualifier and launched a pell-mell dash for the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic, though his time did not count because he is male. And a dog. Hadzic briefly wondered if she was hallucinating before officials escorted the crowd favourite off the snow. “He was cute but not aggressive,” Greece’s Konstantina Charalampidou observed. Nazgul, a very good boy according to multiple sources, has yet to comment on his tactics.
