Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Lægreid has admitted to cheating on his girlfriend in an explosive interview after winning a medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.
Lægreid won a bronze medal in the 20 km biathlon event of the ongoing Winter Olympics. In an interview after winning the medal, the 28-year-old admitted that he cheated on the “love of his life”, who was the “most beautiful and kindest person”.
“I told her a week ago. And it’s been the worst week of my life,” he was quoted as saying by the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK). “I had a gold medal in life, and there’s probably a lot of people out there who look at me differently now, but I only have eyes for her.”
“Sports has taken a bit of a back seat these past couple of days. Yeah, I wish I could share this with her,” he added. He had met his ex-girlfriend six months ago, sometime in August 2025. It was three months ago, sometime in November, when he admitted to cheating on her.
The athlete’s ex-girlfriend, who has not been named, has said that Lægreid cheating on her is “hard to forgive”.
“It’s hard to forgive, even after a declaration of love in front of the whole world,” she told Norwegian newspaper VG.
“I did not choose to be put in this position, and it hurts to have to be in it,” she added. She, though, added that both of them have spoken privately.
Lægreid has also said that he is completely aware of her feelings with respect to the infidelity and his decision to go public. From his part, Lægreid, in a press conference, said that the decision to reveal about his cheating in public was his personal decision.
After confessing to his cheating in public on Tuesday, he released a statement on Wednesday, regretting the timing of revealing this matter. He confessed that he was “not quite himself” and “was not thinking clearly” when he made those remarks.
Coming back to the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, Lægreid is set to compete in four more events in Italy.
He will compete in the Men’s 10km Sprint on Friday (February 13), Men’s 4 × 7.5km Relay (February 17) and the Men’s 15km Mass Start (February 20) events. At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, he had won the Men’s 4×7.5km Relay gold medal.
