Well, we have the most cringe-inducing moment so far.

Olympics Jerk Watch is a long-running feature that subjectively rates the jerkiness (or lack thereof) of the Games’ biggest stars. Read more of Slate’s 2026 Olympics coverage here.

Nominee: Sturla Holm Lægreid

Home country: Norway

Known for: Winning biathlon medals, cheating on his girlfriend, apologizing for cheating on his girlfriend

Why he might be a jerk: On Tuesday at the Milan Cortina Games, Team Norway claimed two of the three podium spots—first and third—in the men’s 20-kilometer individual biathlon. The bronze medalist was 28-year-old Sturla Holm Lægreid, and because biathlon is very popular in Norway, national broadcaster NRK immediately sought him out for a postrace interview.

In the United States, these sorts of interviews are almost always perfunctory and cliché-ridden. The athletes typically thank God and their teammates and rarely say anything insightful or controversial. Well, they apparently do things differently in Norway, because seconds after his interview began, Lægreid announced that he had recently cheated on his girlfriend. (His quotes below are via Google Translate.)

“Six months ago, I met the love of my life. The world’s most beautiful, sweetest person. And three months ago, I made the biggest mistake of my life and cheated on her,” he said tearfully, explaining that he had told his girlfriend of his infidelity a week ago. “I’m not quite sure what I’m trying to say by saying this now, but sport has taken a back seat in recent days. I wish I could share this with her,” he added. Well, I guess he found a way to do it!

As a journalist, I would love to be on the receiving end of such an unfiltered postrace interview. At the same time, I would be highly aware during the interview that my interlocutor was coming across as an incredible jerk.

First, cheating on your partner is a jerky thing to do. Take it from the Ten Commandments, arguably the original master list of things that jerks do: “If you cheat, then you’re a jerk.” (I am paraphrasing.)

Second, Lægreid had a weepy public breakdown over a woman he had known for only six months. Yes, film and television have taught us that “love at first sight” is a thing that exists. But it’s perhaps more likely that someone who gets over-the-top obsessed with a person they just met isn’t in love so much as they’re in love with the idea of being in love with that person. What do we call people who are in love with the idea of the performance of love? Sometimes we call them comparative literature professors. Other times we call them jerks.

Third, Lægreid’s public admission of infidelity, paired with his lachrymose professions of regret, felt less sincere than performative, as if what he really wanted to do was make a grand romantic gesture. These 10 Things I Hate About You–esque moments—when the male lead pulls off an escalating series of embarrassing stunts to win over (or win back) his love interest—are cringeworthy enough on the big screen. In real life, this behavior is at best narcissistic and arguably sociopathic, not least because such gestures rarely account for the feelings of the intended recipient. What kind of person doesn’t bother to think about other people’s feelings? That’s right: a jerk.

Fourth, Lægreid’s interview stole the spotlight from his biathlon teammate Johan-Olav Botn, who had just won gold at his first Olympic Games. On NRK, the network’s studio analysts were stunned by Lægreid’s thoughtlessness. “It was the wrong action—we saw a repentant boy standing there. Unfortunately, both the time, place, and timing are completely wrong,” said biathlon legend Johannes Thingnes Bø.

In subsequent media sessions Tuesday, Lægreid fielded various questions on the theme of What were you thinking? and No, seriously, what were you thinking? According to NRK, the biathlete doubled down. “I have nothing to lose,” he said. “I had a chance at true love, and I screwed up so badly. It’s not necessarily forgivable. But if this gives me a tiny chance to tell her how much I love her, I’d rather commit social suicide on live TV just to get that little chance.” Mission accomplished, I guess!

Finally, although I’d never heard of Sturla Holm Lægreid before a few hours ago, the man didn’t just emerge from a snowbank to medal in the biathlon and beclown himself on Norwegian TV. Back in 2023, it turns out, he was banned from competing in the Biathlon World Cup after accidentally discharging his gun in the team hotel.

“I am deeply sorry for this incident, and strongly apologize to the whole biathlon family, my teammates, and the hotel owner for what happened,” he said at the time, presumably tearfully. Now, if he’d apologized to that same hotel owner again after winning biathlon bronze, that would’ve been charming. He might’ve even gotten his cleaning fee refunded!

Why he might not be a jerk: There’s reason to think that Lægreid is just like this: an extremely emotional person who doesn’t really think things through. Thingnes Bø said as much on NRK on Tuesday: “With Sturla, the emotions are on the outside of his body. He can’t hide it. I think it just burst out. I don’t know if he had thought in advance that it would happen.” Speaking without thinking is something that jerks do, yes, but it’s also something that all of us do.

Imagine that you had something big on your mind, something you’d done that had been eating away at you for days, weeks, months. Now imagine that you’ve just won a medal at the Olympics after an hour’s worth of extreme physical exertion. You’re physically spent, you’re emotionally overwhelmed, and you’re a bit of a messy bitch to begin with. If somebody stuck a microphone in your face under those extremely specific circumstances, I think we all know what would come out of your mouth: “I was not kind, and I did not rewind!”

It’s not just you: I go on podcasts and on the radio somewhat regularly as part of my job, and I am shocked to hear the irrelevant and embarrassing things that come out of my mouth. Sometimes I just say things that I don’t mean to say. It happens. In any case, I suppose Lægreid deserves credit for getting beyond “I left it all out there on the snow” and actually making some news with a postgame interview. Good for him for driving clicks to media outlets in a time of real crisis for the news industry.

It is also worth mentioning that Lægreid later seemed chagrined about stealing the spotlight from Johan-Olav Botn. “I see it myself now, in retrospect. This is Johan’s day. And it’s a shame that this should get so much attention,” Lægreid said in a press conference alongside the gold medalist. “Sorry if I ruined your day.”

True jerks never apologize for anything, least of all for ruining other people’s days.

Lægreid also deserves a very tiny amount of credit for at least not identifying the woman he’d cheated on by name. And I’ll additionally note that he comes across as somewhat charming in a video that Biathlon World uploaded Tuesday, titled “More Than a Biathlete.” (“Probably not the best day to upload the video,” one astute commenter notes.)

In the video, Lægreid reveals that he locks all of his medals away inside a cabinet in his apartment. “If I just sit and stare at my trophies, I will not become better,” he says. The video also shows him rocking out on his electric guitar, which he apparently brings with him on biathlon trips. “Sturla, he’s a bit of a rock and roller,” his coach says. Rock musicians: famously not jerks.

Jerk score: Here at Olympics Jerk Watch, we score all our jerk candidates on style, technical merit, and execution. I’ll give Sturla Holm Lægreid 2.5 out of 3 points for style, with a minor deduction for failing to make his cringey public apology via a series of poster-board signs that he’d written on with marker. 2 out of 3 points for technical merit, because it would have been jerkier to have turned his weepy confession into a public marriage proposal. 1.5 out of 3 points for execution, because this article would have been much easier for me to write if he had given his various interviews in English. And 1 out of 1 points for incurring the wrath of all-time biathlon great Johannes Thingnes Bø. 7 points out of 10 for Sturla Holm Lægreid. Next!

Previously on Olympics Jerk Watch:

The Snowboarder Who Puts the “Extreme” in “Extremely Wanted Fugitive”

The Dutch Speedskater Who’s Engaged to One of the Most Irritating Men on Earth