Niskanen siblings make Beijing 2022 a family (medal-winning) affair

"Mom and dad, we have it all."

The words are emblazoned over an image of Finish cross-country skier Kerttu Niskanen and her brother, Iivo, on her Instagram story, and they truly say it all.

So do the Olympic medals around their necks.

Kerttu won silver medal in Thursday’s (10 February) 10km classic race. Her brother went one better on Friday, taking 15km classic gold.

It's the ultimate family affair playing out on the world’s greatest stage as the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 near their halfway point.

"Maybe we are not the fastest skiers in the world. But I think we have a good engine and good wheel. Maybe that's the biggest reason to get good results on these kinds of tracks,” said Iivo Niskanen of their medal wins.

“And we have belief, our way to do things. We have improved the capacity of our wheels for endurance training. And here on this kind of track this paid off.”

As siblings are prone to do, he couldn’t resist one slight jab at his older sister’s expense.

"I could have won by a bigger margin if I didn’t watch her race yesterday, because I was so nervous to watch it on television,” Iivo joked. “I’m so happy that Kerttu is happy, even though it was a very close fight with Therese [gold medallist Johaug]. I'm so proud about her work.”

Incredibly, they managed to win medals on the same day at Sochi 2014.

On 19 February 2014, it was gold for Iivo and silver for Kerttu in their respective team sprint events.

Friday’s win yielded the third Olympic gold medal of Iivo's career. In addition to team sprint gold in Sochi 2014, the 30-year-old won the individual 50km classic title at PyeongChang 2018.

He came into Beijing as one of the favourites in the 15km classic, having won two previous races ahead of the Games.

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