Olympic skier misses chance at gold medal after wrong turn

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Norwegian skier Jarl Magnus Riiber had high hopes coming to Beijing for the 2022 Winter Olympics, but a positive COVID test and one wrong turn have dimmed that hope.

Riiber, a three-time world champion, was leading by nearly a minute in the Nordic combined large hill/10km event on Tuesday when he took a wrong turn on the course, heading toward the finish line instead of looping around for the final two laps.

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"I was actually quite focused on the technique and the pace, and I was staring down and suddenly when I was raising the head, I see the finish line and then I thought, okay — this is not my Olympics," he told reporters, via Reuters. 

Norway's Jarl Magnus Riiber competes in the Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10km, Ski Jumping Competition event, on Feb. 15, 2022 at the Zhangjiakou National Ski Jumping Centre, during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games. 

But Riiber’s mistake was more of a physical issue than a mental lapse. He tested positive upon his arrival in Beijing and was only cleared on Monday 

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"It was more of a physical problem," he said. "When I'm in normal shape, the mental part is normally there. I was not able to ski normal. I was feeling quite bad.

Jarl Magnus Riiber of Team Norway celebrates competes during Individual Gundersen Large Hill/10km, Ski Jumping Competition Round on day 11 of 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics at The National Cross-Country Skiing Centre on February 15, 2022 in Zhangjiakou, China.  (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

"I had two days with very hard symptoms with corona and I was starting to train a little bit, building it a little bit up to perform on this day," he continued. "But I have been locked inside for two weeks, not breathing fresh air and not being friends with the snow and the cold weather here. So yeah, then the body's not working. I'm normally one of the better skiers as well, and today I was just bad."

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Jarl Magnus Riiber of Norway  competes during the Individual Gundersen HS109/7.5km at the FIS World Cup Nordic Combined Men Seefeld at on January 28, 2022 in Seefeld, Austria.  (Photo by Franz Kirchmayr/SEPA.Media /Getty Images)

Riiber jumped 142 meters (466 feet) and had 139.8 points in the first phase of the competition. The impressive jump gave him a 44-second lead in the cross-country race, but he finished eighth after his unfortunate run in the cross-country portion.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.