Very good dog invades course but falls short of medal glory at Winter Olympics | Winter Olympics 2026

A local dog missed out on a historic cross-country medal at the Winter Olympics despite a blistering push down the home stretch.

Nazgul, who NPR reports lives in a nearby hotel in Tesero, burst onto the course Wednesday morning and sprinted to the line behind Croatia’s Tena Hadzic as she neared the end of the qualifying race for the women’s cross-country team sprint. Even if he had completed the entire race, Nazgul’s time would not have counted since he is a man. And a dog.

“I thought, ‘Am I hallucinating?’ Hadzic spoke about meeting Nazgul, a Czechoslovakian wolfdog. “I don’t know what I should do, because maybe he might attack me, bite me.”

Once Nazgul welcomed the cheers of the adoring crowd, he was captured by race officials. Hadzic took the incident calmly.

“It’s not that bad, because I’m not fighting for medals or anything big,” she said. “But if it happened in the final it could really cost someone medals, or a really good result.”

Greece’s Konstantina Charalampidou said Nazgul seemed determined to become famous rather than focusing on her race plan.

“He was chasing the camera up and down the finish line. He was cute but not aggressive,” she said. “I wanted to pet him, but I didn’t have time and I couldn’t find him afterwards.”

Nazgul’s owner told NPR that the two-year-old was probably looking for companionship rather than sporting glory.

“He was crying this morning more than usual because he saw us leaving — and I think he just wanted to follow us,” the owner told NPR. “He’s always looking for people.”

Nazgul, who is a very good boy, has not yet commented on his performance.