(Photo credit: Reuters//Eloisa Lopez)

ANTERSELVA, Italy -- Norway set a record for gold medals at a Winter Olympics when Johannes Dale-Skjevdal won the men's 15km biathlon mass start at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena on Friday.

The previous record of 16 also belonged to Norway, set at the Beijing Games in 2022.

Dale-Skjevdal hit a perfect 20 for 20 on the shooting range for the first time in his career to storm to victory.

Dale-Skjevdal's compatriot Sturla Holm Laegreid took the silver, 10.5 seconds behind.

Quentin Fillon Maillet of France stormed past Germany's Philipp Horn on the last lap to secure bronze and become his nation's most successful Olympian of all time with nine medals.

Dale-Skjevdal was the only biathlete in the 30-man field not to miss a shot on the day.

'There's a lot of feelings. Olympic champion. Damn, it's sick, it's a dream ... I have no words,' the 28-year-old told Norwegian TV.

Heavy snowfall on Thursday and an unpredictable wind made conditions challenging, but the Norwegians exerted all of their experience to gradually take a stranglehold on the race.

The blustery wind picked up considerably and caused chaos at the third shoot, but Dale-Skjevdal fired another series of perfect shots to take a lead over Laegreid.

After some underwhelming performances so far this season, second-place Laegreid grabbed his fifth medal of the Milan Cortina Games as he turned his fortunes around. Though none of them were gold, he was still content.

'I am really happy with my performance here. I mean, coming into the Olympics, no podiums in the season, and really only getting told that the individual was my race, and then to be here now with five medals, that's a gold medal in itself,' he said.

Norway's Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo earned five gold medals toward his country's haul at the Milan Cortina Games. For his career, he now has 10 gold medals, second in Olympic history after American swimmer Michael Phelps.

--Reuters, special to Field Level Media