Norway’s Hetland Still Plays It Close

It was just moments after the conclusion of the men’s team sprint, a relatively new cross-country race added to these 2006 Turin Games.

Norwegian skier Tor Arne Hetland was asked if he would like to see any changes in the event.

“To change it by 50 meters would have been great today,” Hetland quipped.

The 31-year-old racer had just lost by the narrowest of margins, out-sprinted in the final meters by Bjoern Lind of Sweden.

Hetland knows something about close finishes.

In the 1.5-kilometer sprint at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, he was third with 100 meters to go.

At the last moment, he passed Cristian Zorzi of Italy, then held off a hard-charging Peter Schlickenrieder of Germany to win the gold medal.

Only 0.3 of a second separated the three racers and Schlickenrieder protested, claiming that Hetland had illegally cut him off while switching lanes near the finish line.

After conferring with teammates, Schlickenrieder tried to withdraw the protest. Officials had already overruled it.

In a memorable photo from those Games, a grinning Hetland celebrated his victory with one foot on Zorzi, bowed before him.

The photo suited Hetland’s broad smile and reputation as something of a joker, a personality at odds with his status and circumstance in cross-country.

The sport is serious business in Norway, with a list of champions that ranges from Johan Grottumsbraten in the 1920s to Bjorn Daehlie in the 1990s. At the start of these Games, the country had won 26 of the 72 men’s cross-country gold medals awarded since the Winter Olympics began in 1924.

With his victory in 2002, Hetland was taking his place in that lineage.

He looked the part, tall and powerful, his hair cropped short.

After Olympic gold, he took bronze in the sprint at the 2003 world championships and silver in 2005, edged in that race by Russian Vassili Rotchev. He also finished last year as the overall sprint leader in World Cup events.

Tuesday at Pragelato Plan, with teams of two in a relay, Hetland and countryman Jens Arne Svartedal were feeling confident.

“It was an almost perfect day for us,” Svartedal said.

Though Lind was running close, there might have been some question about whether he could come through: The Swede had never won a medal at the Olympic or world championship level, finishing fourth at Salt Lake City.

Afterward, he said, “My plan was just to follow Tor Arne.”

As three racers -- including Rotchev -- charged down the final stretch, thrusting up on their toes, digging with poles, Hetland held a momentary lead but was soon overtaken.

He talked about a silver medal being good, a gold being even better. He seemed to appreciate the excitement of the finish.

“Today, there was one man that was stronger than me,” he said. “That’s what this sport is about.”