One furry athlete stole the spotlight at the Winter Olympics!
The 2026 Winter Olympics are being held in northern Italy, with athletes from more than 90 countries competing across 16 sports in over 100 medal events.
Spectators were in for a treat during the women’s cross-country team sprint qualifying race on Wednesday (February 18) when a playful dog dashed onto the course. The pup made its way down the course just as athletes from Team Croatia and Team Australia were crossing the finish line.
The unexpected visitor paused near the cameras, then raced towards the skiers before heading to the post-finish area. The canine was later reported to be two-year-old Nazgul, a local dog whose owners were related to an event official.
His owners describe Nazgul as a “stubborn, but very sweet” Czechoslovakian wolfdog.
“Anybody lost their dog?” the announcers joked.
After the racers hit the finish line, the dog made its rounds, sniffing each athlete before trotting over to the post-finish area. It then mingled with the competitors and volunteers, happily receiving pets and belly rubs.
Omega, the official timing partner of the Milano-Cortina Games, captured the dog’s dash with its Scan’O’Vision ULTIMATE photo-finish camera, giving the four-legged intruder its very own “photo-finish” moment alongside the Olympic athletes.
One of the athletes even questioned if what she was seeing was real during the ordeal.
“I was like, ‘Am I hallucinating?” Tena Hadzic, a 21-year-old Croatian skier who was next to the dog towards her finish, said. “I don’t know what I should do, because maybe he could attack me, bite me.”
Fortunately, Nazgul’s run along the course had little impact, since the preliminary qualifying round was in progress and the leading athletes had already crossed the finish line.
“It’s not that big deal, because I’m not fighting for medals or anything big,” Hadzic said. “But if that happened in the finals, it could really cost someone the medals, or a really good result.”
You can watch a clip of Nazgul’s grand debut at the Olympics below.