Johannes Høsflot Klæbo's pursuit of a record 9th gold medal is the gift of greatness the Olympics provide

Veteran sportswriter Richard Deitsch takes an international view of the Olympics.

I was thinking today about the most fundamental reason I love watching the Olympics. What I came up with was this:

Discovering greatness. 

To watch your fellow human do something extraordinary is to travel to an elevated place that makes you appreciate your moment on the planet. This speech, from the late actor J.C. Quinn in the movie Vision Quest, explains it much better than I can. 

In search of greatness, I am going to make time Sunday to watch a sport I normally would never view during the year. Norway cross-country skier Johannes Høsflot Klæbo is one gold medal away from breaking the record for most gold medals won at the Winter Olympics.

With eight, Klæbo is tied with three fellow Norwegians (Marit Bjoergen, Ole Einar Bjorndalen, Bjorn Daehlie) for the all-time mark. He will stand alone if Norway places first in the men’s 4x7.5km relay. The race begins at 6 a.m. ET and there are 10 countries competing, with Norway as the heavy favourites. The Athletic’s Jacob Whitehead watched Klæbo’s last race with his father and it makes for fascinating insight into what makes the Norwegian great.

Greatness existed on Saturday, too. American speed skater Jordan Stolz, bidding to win four gold medals at these Games, won his second so far with an Olympic record time of 33.77 in the men’s 500 metres. In a thrilling pairing, Stolz edged out the Netherlands' Jenning de Boo, who skated aside him and won silver. (And what a bronze medal for Canada’s Laurent Dubreuil!) All three podium members set Olympic records during the race. Stolz still has the men’s 1,500 metres on Thursday and the mass start on Feb. 21.

American alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin