Earning six gold medals at the Milan Cortina Games and becoming the winningest Winter Olympian is an accomplishment that is still sinking in for Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. 

It’s the day after he had a two-week golden sprint through six cross-country skiing events at the Tesero Cross-Country Stadium, and the Closing Ceremony is a few hours away. He’s exhausted all his energy and is tired from celebrating with his family and fiancée after Saturday's 50km race. His monumental performance is still fresh.

“I went into this Olympics with a big goal, which was I thought I could be able to do four [gold medals],” he said. “If everything goes as I planned, it can be four, and sitting here with six now it's even more crazy.”

He hasn’t had a chance to dive into the numbers or the stats behind his Olympic performance, because he was just taking it race by race.

Of those six Olympic races he competed in, they were all special in different ways, but there were a few that meant the most to Klaebo. One such race was the 50km classic, sometimes called the “ski marathon," which required mental and physical exertion and took 2 hours, 6 minutes, 44 seconds to finish.

“In Norway, we used to say that you're not becoming a man until you win a 50k, so being able to do that in the Olympics, it's quite cool. And something I really proud of,” he said.

The other race that stands out to Klaebo was the 10km free on Feb. 13, an event he has never won on the World Cup circuit — something you can't say often about Klaebo — but was able to win at the Olympics.

“I think that the cool part is that we're able to win the shortest race, which is the sprint, and also the longest one, and everything in between,” he said. 

No matter the type of race that was contested — free or classic, sprint or distance, relay or individual — Klaebo's favorite portion of the course in Italy was the incline. In each race, he powered up the hill on his skis to create a gap between him and his competitors.

“I liked the last uphill,” he said. “I think I've done most of my races where I'm making my move at the end there, and so I think the sprint will stand out as a very good memory.”

Klaebo's most memorable sprint was from the men’s team sprint classic on Feb. 10, when he surged so fast up a hill that a clip of it was viewed by millions on the internet. For Klaebo, the popularity of this clip meant that more people could relate to and understand the speed of the sport.

“It's cool for us to see that people are getting their eyes up for cross-country skiing,” he said.

During each race in Italy, Klaebo was chasing the high of crossing the finish line. He feels an array of emotions during those last 100 meters before the finish line: first relief when he turns around and sees he has a gap on his competitors, then pure enjoyment when he realizes he’s going to win.

“That's something that I will do everything to accomplish,” he said. “It's like that's why you're training so hard in the summer, to be able to get that feeling.”

Klaebo chased that feeling six times at Milan Cortina. He plans to fight for that feeling again in four years at the next Winter Games.

He could chase that feeling next week at the World Cup races, but he doesn’t know yet if he’ll participate. For now, he’s going to the Closing Ceremony and then he’s going home to rest.

“It’s been some crazy, crazy days here in Italy,” he said.