Marit Bjoergen ties Winter Olympic record with 13th medal

Marit Bjoergen crossed the finish line, thrust her ski poles in the air and was promptly mobbed by teammates. She’d done it.

No Winter Olympian in history can say they have more medals than the 37-year-old Norwegian.

Bjoergen helped the Norwegian women win the 4x5-kilometer cross-country relay yesterday to take home her 13th career medal, tying her with Norwegian biathlete Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for the most Winter Games medals ever.

She can take over sole possession of the lead with a medal in either of the final two women’s events — the team sprint relay or the mass start. The 44-year-old Bjoerndalen participated in six Olympics but did not make this year’s team, so his medal count won’t increase.

Bjoerndalen is at the Winter Games helping out his wife Darya Domracheva, who won a silver medal for Belarus yesterday night. He said he’s cheering for Bjoergen break the record.

He thinks she will break the record before the games are over.

“I think she will win at least one more gold — and maybe two more,” Bjoerndalen said.

As for Bjoergen, she said she hasn’t given herself time to think about the record.

Bjoergen was 3.4 seconds behind with the Norwegians in third place entering the anchor leg of the race.

But she quickly took the lead and never let it go, holding off Stina Nilsson for the gold.

Sweden finished a close second while a team of Russians were third.

It was Bjoergen’s third medal at this year’s Olympics, but her first gold. She also claimed a silver and bronze in individual events.

Bjoergen now has seven gold medals, the most ever by a female Winter Olympian.

At 37 years, 333 days old, Bjoergen became the second-oldest Olympic champion in the event behind only Raisa Smetanina, who was 39 years, 354 days old when she claimed gold in 1992.

Surprisingly, the Swedes did not use Charlotte Kalla as their anchor after she erased a 25-second deficit on the last leg at the 2014 Sochi Games to pull out a dramatic gold medal for Sweden. Instead, Kalla took the second leg, where she still made up 24 seconds to put the Swedes back in the mix.

The US women’s team was hoping for its first medal, but Sophie Caldwell left the Americans in 11th place and more than a minute behind after the first leg. The rest of the team could not make up the deficit and the Americans finished a distant fifth.

“This is our best Olympic relay finish ever and probably the most excitement we’ve ever had,” American skier Kikkan Randall said.