‘Unbeatable’ skier throws away heroic Winter Olympics gold medal with brutal wrong turn

Nordic combined star Jarl Magnus Riiber threw away a heroic Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics gold medal on Tuesday after a wrong turn became the worst ‘silly mistake’ of his life.

Despite only completing nearly two weeks of COVID-19 quarantine the day before the individual large hill/10km event, the 24-year-old favourite dominated his rivals and built an early one-minute lead.

But - as you can watch in the video above - Riiber committed a costly act of self-sabotage when he took a wrong turn at the 2.5km mark of the cross-country race.

Riiber had started the race with a 44-second head start following a relatively surprising start in the ski jumping portion of the event, flying 142m for 139.8 points.

The three-time world champion extended that lead to one minute but one brutal mistake wasted nearly all of it.

Riiber skied into the wrong lane at the end of the first cross-country loop and only realised 15 seconds later, forcing a quick and uncomfortable U-turn.

“What an extraordinary, elementary error,” the Olympic commentator said.

“He’s almost sabotaged his own chances here, what an opportunity for the chasing pack.”

The Norwegian’s cushion was reduced to fewer than 10 seconds by the time he was up to speed in the correct lane.

“It’s a silly mistake and it’s not fun to show the world that I’m maybe wasting a gold medal on that,” Riiber told reporters.

“But on a normal day with that mistake as well, I would be in the fight. I’m a good sprinter and I would fight for the gold anyway.”

Riiber would go on to finish eighth - crossing the line 39.8 seconds, roughly the same amount of time he’d lost earlier in the race, after Norwegian teammate Jorgen Graabak took advantage to win gold.

“I have to bring the positive thing from the