By Philip O’Connor
ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Norway’s Sturla Holm Laegreid said he has learned to hold his tongue in front of the media’s microphones at the Milano Cortina Games after a pair of gaffes that got him more headlines than his biathlon medals.
The 28-year-old, who won silver in Tuesday’s men’s relay, went viral for revealing in a post-race interview that he had cheated on his girlfriend, and he caused a war of words with Emilien Jacquelin of France with a joke in another interview that missed its target.
“After my atomic bomb in the mixed zone (about his cheating), I feel like I need to really watch what I’m saying, because now, now that every statement from me can become clickbait,” Laegreid told Reuters with a broad grin.
After beating the Frenchman to bronze in the men’s individual race by two-tenths of a second, Laegreid was on the receiving end of plenty of negative comments on social media after wondering if Jacquelin had stopped to greet fans.
“I mean, it’s just joking with each other – I know a lot of French fangirls of Emilien are mad, but as long as there are still good vibes between me and him, that’s what matters,” he said, adding that the Norwegians and the French still play video games together online.
Laegreid faced a tough battle as he picked up his fourth medal of the Games to leave him with a tally of two silver and two bronze.
“It was a fight, for sure, big variations. We went from leading to pursuing, and then we were equal, and then it was a fight between us and France, so this really had it all,” he said.
The Norwegian will get one last chance at Olympic gold in Friday’s mass start.
(Reporting by Philip O’ConnorEditing by Christian Radnedge)
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