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There are very few safer places in the world than an Olympic post-event interview. You thank your team. You mention the conditions. You say it hasn’t sunk in yet. Then you get out of the way. Unless, apparently, you’re Sturla Holm Lægreid.
Moments after winning bronze in the men’s 20km individual biathlon at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the Norwegian did something no one asked for and no one expected. On live television, with the medal still around his neck, he confessed to cheating on his girlfriend.
Straight up. No euphemisms. No delay. Just pure honesty.
Speaking to NRK immediately after the race, Lægreid revealed he’d had an affair three months earlier and had told his girlfriend of six months about it roughly a week before the Olympics began. He described the past few days as “the worst week of my life” and said sport had taken a back seat to trying to fix what he’d broken.
“There is someone I wanted to share this with who might not be watching today,” Laegreid said.
Unfortunately for everyone involved, millions of other people were.
“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.
“I had the gold medal in life,” he said. “Sport has come second these last few days. Yes, I wish I could share this with her.”
Later, speaking to Norwegian newspaper VG, he said his only option was to put everything on the table and hope she could still love him.
“I want to be a good role model, but I have to admit when I make mistakes.”
He also insisted he wasn’t trying to steal attention from the race or from gold medallist Johan-Olav Botn, which probably tells you he knew exactly how this was going to land.
“I don’t want to steal the show,” Lægreid said. “I hope this is just like a day-or-two thing. Then you are an Olympic gold medallist forever.”
If your brain immediately went to that Coldplay concert, you’re not alone.
In July 2025, a stadium screen cut to Andy Byron, then CEO ofAstronomer, standing with senior executive Kristin Cabot while Coldplay performed at Gillette Stadium near Boston, in the US. A joke was made. The clip went viral. And the internet filled in the blanks as it usually does.
Within days, Byron had resigned. Cabot stepped down shortly after. Later, a report clarified that the situation was more complicated than the memes suggested, but by then it didn’t really matter. The moment has already done its damage.
Same mistake. Different settings. Different lives. One was caught. The other confessed.
Lægreid is now a two-time Olympic medallist, adding this bronze to the relay gold he won in Beijing in 2022. That part he can hold onto for the rest of his life. But the internet will likely only remember his interview.
“I don’t know if it was the right choice or not, but it was the choice I made.”
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