Norway’s Ole Bjoerndalen closes in on a Winter Olympics medals record

SOCHI, Russia — The Winter Olympics record for most medals won is in position to be broken after Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won the men’s 10-kilometer sprint in biathlon Saturday at the Sochi Games.

Bjoerndalen, of Norway, won his 12th overall medal and seventh gold. He is tied with fellow Norwegian cross-country legend Bjorn Daehlie for most medals and should break his record when he competes later in the men’s and mixed relays.

Bjoerndalen, 40, also became the oldest gold-medal winner, breaking the mark of Canadian skeleton rider Duff Gibson, who was 39 when he won gold in 2006.

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Tim Burke, in 19th place, was the highest finisher from the U.S. Other U.S. competitors were Lowell Bailey (35th), Leif Nordgren (45th) and Russell Currier (61st).

Dominik Landertinger of Austria won the silver medal and Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic took the bronze.

Cross-country skiing: Norway also continued its dominance of cross-country as Marit Bjoergen won the women’s 15-kilometer skiathlon. It was her fourth gold medal.

Bjoergen, 33, also became the oldest woman to win an individual cross-country gold. Charlotte Kalla of Sweden won the silver and Norway’s Heidi Weng took the bronze.

Jessica Diggins finished eighth for the U.S. in a race that has 7.5 kilometers of classical-style skiing, followed by the same distance in freestyle.