An unlikely racer gatecrashed an Olympic finish.
A husky wandered onto the course during the qualifying round of the women’s team sprint cross-country race in Tesero. Upon noticing a few athletes on the finishing straight, the dog hightailed it to the finish to join them and stole the show.
The dog crossed the line after the skiers and it received a boom of cheers from the crowd, who were clearly entertained by the surprise appearance at the finish.
According to NPR, the dog is a two-year-old Czechoslovakian wolfdog named Nazgul and has owners related to an event official.
“He was crying this morning more than normal because he was seeing us leaving — and I think he just wanted to follow us,” said the owner, who was granted anonymity by the outlet. “He always looks for people.”
Timekeepers at the event didn’t miss the opportunity to capture a photo finish in what made for a gold medal moment.
The stunt didn’t appear to have any significant impact to the race and the medal contenders had finished by that time already.
Croatian skier Tena Hadzic, who was one of the racers to share the finishing stretch with the dog, admitted the Nazgul likely caused her to lose “some seconds,” she said per NPR.
“I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating? I don’t know what I should do, because maybe he could attack me, bite me,” she added.
“I became famous with a dog that came across the finish line, and everyone wants to interview me now,” Greek skier Konstantina Charalampidou, the other racer to share a few meters with the dog, said per ESPN.
“He was chasing the camera that goes up and down the finish line. He was cute but not aggressive. I wanted to pet him, but I didn’t have the time and I couldn’t find him afterwards.”
Hadzic and Croatia placed 19th in the qualifiers and Charalampidou’s Greece team finished last in the 26th spot. With only the top 15 squads moving on, both did not qualify for the final round of the event that occurred hours later.
After leading the qualifiers, Sweden went on to win the gold with a total time of 20:29.99. Switzerland quickly followed for the silver (20:31.29) and Germany finished off the podium for the bronze (20.35.86).
Team USA missed the podium, finishing in fifth place (20:41.53).
