Zhangjiakou (China) (AFP) - Norwegian nordic combined athlete Jarl Magnus Riiber has had a Beijing Olympics to forget.
Despite emerging from Covid-19 isolation just before his event, the 24-year-old was raring to go in the large hill 10km/ski jump event on Tuesday.
Then he took a wrong turn and blew any chance of a medal.
Riiber had only been given the green to compete on the day of the event after time in isolation due to a positive test for coronavirus.
Nevertheless, he put himself in contention for a medal by soaring out to the highest-scoring ski jump earlier in the day.
Then came the 10-kilometre cross-country ski -- but with his time in isolation he had not had time to check out the course beforehand and he went the wrong way.
Once Riiber realised his mistake he turned around -- but he had lost valuable time and eventually finished eighth, nearly 40 seconds behind, in a competition won by his fellow Norwegian Joergen Graabak.
Another Norwegian, Jens Luraas Oftebro, took the silver medal while Akito Watabe of Japan won bronze.
"It's a silly mistake and it's not fun to show the world that I'm maybe wasting a gold medal on that," said Riiber.
"I have only spent seven minutes on skis (since leaving isolation).I could tell it wasn't enough for what I was facing today."
He headed off to get warm -- and was crossing his fingers he would be fit for Thursday's team event.
"Let's see if I come through today unscathed.It's possible I might have caught a little illness because it was cold and the temperature is a little bit different from what I had in the hotel room," he said.
