Tiril Eckhoff praises Sturla Holm Lægreid after Olympic silver in the pursuit

OSLO/ANTERSELVA (HBO Max):

Sturla Holm Lægreid continued to collect Olympic medals in Italy. On Sunday he took silver in the Olympic pursuit in Anterselva.

Émilien Jacquelin had led comfortably into his final standing stage, but two misses on that series opened the race up and made the final lap dramatic. Swedish Martin Ponsiluoma left the range in the lead from the last shooting, closely followed by the Frenchman and Lægreid 15 seconds back.

Ponsiluoma eventually crossed the line in a controlled victory ahead of Lægreid, who broke away from the Frenchman early on the final lap. Lægreid hit 18 of 20 targets on the range on Sunday; Jacquelin still secured bronze despite his late problems.

“It's fun to win a medal. It is. It was a tougher race, I didn’t quite have the flow, but I focused on even laps early and not getting too eager,” Lægreid told HBO Max.

Team‑mate Johan‑Olav Botn called Lægreid “incredibly strong,” and HBO Max expert Tiril Eckhoff praised him as “raw” and able to find focus despite outside pressure. Expert Henrik L’Abée‑Lund also noted that Lægreid “continues to collect medals.”

Head coach Siegfried Mazet said the team had hoped for gold but were satisfied with silver: “It is a good performance, but we aimed for gold today. Still, with silver for Sturla we are happy.”

Under Saturday’s sprint Vetle Sjåstad Christiansen won silver while Lægreid took bronze; on the pursuit Sjåstad Christiansen fell out of the medals on the final standing stage and finished fifth, with Johannes Dale‑Skjevdal sixth and Johan‑Olav Botn tenth.

This brings Lægreid’s tally at the championships in Italy to three medals — he earlier won bronze in the normal distance. After that earlier medal he gave an interview to NRK in which he apologised for infidelity in a past relationship; the admission drew wide reaction, yet he has continued to perform on the range.

“He’s received a lot of hate, memes and all sorts of crap around him. But he’s managed to find the small positives, the messages that have helped him. And he’s in massive form. Norway’s altitude set‑up has worked — it has worked perfectly for Sturla,” Eckhoff said.

Lægreid acknowledged the mixed emotions after the race: “I don’t know how much to share personally, but it’s very two‑sided. It’s fun to win a medal, but other things are more important in life.”