Sturla Holm Laegreid earned a bronze medal in the Olympics this week, but he was not able to share it with one special person: a woman he recently cheated on.
The Norwegian took bronze, his first individual Olympic medal, in the biathlon on Tuesday and fought back tears in a post-event interview — not about the medal, but about “the biggest mistake of my life.”
“There’s someone I wanted to share it with who might not be watching today. Six months ago, I met the love of my life — the most beautiful and kindest person in the world. Three months ago, I made my biggest mistake and cheated on her,” Laegreid said to NRK in Norway.
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“I told her about it a week ago. It’s been the worst week of my life.”
Laegreid referred to the woman as his “gold medal in my life.” He was actually part of the relay team that took gold at the Beijing Olympics.
But instead of celebrating Tuesday, he was distraught, crying and hugging friends after the race. During a news conference, he explained why he decided to tell the world about his personal situation on the broadcast.
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“It was the choice I made. We make different choices during our life and that’s how we make life,” he told a room full of journalists. “So today I made a choice to tell the world what I did, so maybe, maybe there is a chance she will see what she really means to me. Maybe not.”
“There are probably many who look at me with different eyes, but I only have eyes for her,” he added. “Sport has taken a slightly different place in my life the last few days. Yes, I wish I could share it with her.”
In a separate media availability, Laegreid seemed to regret giving the interview, as he felt he may have upstaged gold medal winner Johan-Olav Botn, his Norwegian teammate.
“Now I hope I didn’t ruin Johan’s day. Maybe it was really selfish of me to give that interview. So yeah, I don’t know. I was, I’m a bit, I don’t know … I’m not really here mentally. So yeah, we will see what happens.”
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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