Most gold medals in one Winter Olympics: Inside Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo's legendary 2026 medal count

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Most gold medals in one Winter Olympics: Inside Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo's legendary 2026 medal count originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

The Winter Olympics don't offer as many opportunities as the Summer Olympics for athletes to stack several medals on one year, but certain sports allow a handful of opportunities.

Speed skaters and skiers are among athletes who can quickly pile up medals in the winter games, and one skier in particular has won big in 2026.

Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo arrived in Milan with seven Olympic medals to his name and dominated his early events, bringing his career total to double-digits.

Here's a look at where Klaebo's 2026 medal total ranks among the all-time leaders for one Winter Olympics.

MORE 2026 OLYMPICS: Live medal tracker | Viewer's guide | Day-by-day schedule

Most gold medals in one Winter Olympics​

Klaebo's five gold medals at the 2026 Winter Olympics are tied for the most in one winter games. He shares the record with former American speed skater Eric Heiden, who won gold five times in Lake Placid in 1980.

Athlete	Nation	Sport	Games	Gold Medals
Eric Heiden	United States	Speed skating	Lake Placid 1980	5
Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo	Norway	Cross-country skiing	Milan 2026	5
Lidiya Skoblikova	Soviet Union	Speed skating	Innsbruck 1964	4
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen	Norway	Biathlon	Salt Lake City 2002	4
Johannes Thingnes Bo	Norway	Biathlon	Beijing 2022	4

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo​

Klaebo won three gold medals in the 2018 Winter Olympics and two more in Beijing in 2022, but he leveled up in 2026 with five gold medals in his first five events in Italy.

Klaebo won gold in individual, skiathlon, sprint, relay and team sprint competitions, padding Norway's excellent showing in the 2026 games. Klaebo's opportunity to set a new record for one Winter Olympics will come in the mass start competition.

Through his fifth gold medal in 2026, Klaebo has 10 Olympic gold medals in his career an 12 overall. His 10 gold medals are a Winter Olympics record and rank second in Olympics history overall, behind only Michael Phelps' 23 in swimming.

Eric Heiden​

Heiden starred at the 1980 Winter Olympics, winning five gold medals in his home country.

Heiden prevailed in the men's 500-meter, 1000-meter, 1500-meter, 5000-meter and 10000-meter competitions in Lake Placid, sweeping his way to a record that stood on its own until Klaebo in 2026.

Those five gold medals were the only medals of Heiden's Olympic career. He would go onto become a professional cyclist after speed skating and was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 1983.

MORE:How many medals does USA have in 2026?

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo 2026 Olympic gold medal count​

Individual 10km freestyle​

Klaebo won gold in the men's individual 10km freestyle, finishing about five seconds before France's Mathis Desloges. Norway captured four of the top five spots in the race, including two medals, and it marked Klaebo's first Olympic gold in the event after he won bronze in 2022.

20km Skiathlon​

Klaebo won gold in the men's 20km skiathlon, finishing two seconds better than Desloges. Norway again took two of the three medals in the event, and it marked the first skiathlon gold of Klaebo's Olympic career.

Cross-Country Sprint​

Klaebo won his third consecutive Cross-Country Sprint gold, beating out the USA's Ben Ogden by less than one second. He finished more than 11 seconds clear of fourth place, easily securing a medal.

Relay​

Klaebo won a team gold in the relay event, with Norway beating out silver medalist France by 22 seconds. It was his fourth gold medal at the 2026 games.

Team Sprint​

Klaebo teamed up with Einar Hedegart to win the team sprint for Norway, capturing his fifth gold medal of the 2026 games. Klaebo and Hedegart finished 1.37 seconds ahead of the United States. The win marked Norway's third consecutive gold in the team sprint; Klaebo was featured on each team.

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Did Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo set the all-time Olympic gold medal record?​

Klaebo has more gold medals than any Winter Olympian in history, but he is still well behind the record when including the Summer Olympics.

American swimmer Michael Phelps won a whopping 23 gold medals, including eight in 2008 alone. 23 of Phelps' 28 overall medals were gold, and it didn't take long for him to cement himself as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Klaebo is the all-time record-holder for gold medals among Winter Olympians, but he isn't yet halfway to Phelps' total.

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Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo vs. Michael Phelps​

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo	Medal	Michael Phelps
10	Gold	23
1	Silver	3
1	Bronze	2
12	Total	28

Klaebo's 12 medals pale in comparison to Phelps' 28, but no one has ever come particularly close to Phelps' records in gold or total medals.

As far as the winter games go, Klaebo leads the way with 10 gold medals, though his 12 overall medals are still shy of the record 15.

How many Olympic medals does Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo have all time?​

Klaebo has 12 Olympic medals: 10 gold, one silver and one bronze.

While he has more gold medals than any other Winter Olympian in history, Klaebo is not the record-holder for overall medals in the Winter Olympics. Fellow Norwegian skier Marit Bjoergren holds the record with 15 medals at the winter games, followed by Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen (14) and Dutch speed skater Ireen Wust (13).

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