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The seven-time world champion finished third in the biathlon – which combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting – behind champion Johan-Olav Botn, a fellow Norwegian, and Eric Perrot of France.

It is a second Olympic medal for Laegreid, who won gold in the relay at the 2022 Games.

Asked about his admission in the news conference later, he added: “Of course, now I hope I didn’t ruin Johan’s day.

“I don’t know if it was the right choice or not, but it was the choice I made.

“I made the choice to tell the world what I did so maybe there’s a chance she will see what she really means to me – maybe not, but I don’t want to think I didn’t try everything to get her back.

“I don’t want to steal the show. I hope this is just like a day-or-two thing. Then you are an Olympic gold medallist forever.”

Five-time Olympic champion Johannes Thingnes Boe, who is now a biathlete expert with broadcasters NRK, questioned the timing of Laegreid’s admission.

“It came as a complete surprise. His action was wrong – we saw a repentant lad standing there. Unfortunately, the time, place and timing are all wrong,” said Boe, a former team-mate of Laegreid.

Botn shouted the name of late team-mate Sivert Guttorm Bakken as he crossed the line to win gold.

Bakken was found dead on 23 December in a hotel room in northern Italy, about two hours from where the biathlon was held.

“I was racing with him the entire last loop. And, yeah, it was more like a feeling of crossing the finish line together, and seeing the number one beside my name was really special,” an emotional Botn said.

Laegreid added: “We were five guys on the start line, and one of them was watching from above. This was for Sivert, really.”

In 2006, Palm Beach police were investigating the disgraced financier for the alleged sexual exploitation of underage girls. The case was later turned over to federal prosecutors, who in 2008 made a controversial plea deal with Epstein that included a non-prosecution agreement that protected him from more serious charges.

In a statement to the BBC, a justice department official said: “We are not aware of any corroborating evidence that the president contacted law enforcement 20 years ago.”

At the White House briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked about the reported call and said it “may or may not have happened in 2006. I don’t know the answer.”

“What President Trump has always said is that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep,” she said. “And that remains true in this call. If it did happen it corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”

The BBC has also contacted Reiter for comment.

Trump and Epstein socialised and appeared in photographs together in the 1990s, but the president and the White House have repeatedly said he was in the dark about Epstein’s crimes before he broke off contact with him in around 2004 – years before he was first arrested.

Trump has said their falling out came after he learned Epstein had been trying to “steal” his employees from Mar-a-Lago.

“When I heard about it, I told him, we don’t want you taking our people,” Trump said in July. “He was fine and then not too long after that he did it again and I said ‘outta here’.”

Reports of the alleged call came after Maxwell – who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for recruiting teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein – testified virtually before the US House Oversight Committee on Monday.

During the closed-door deposition, Maxwell refused to answer questions and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, invoking her right to remain silent, Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said.

Maxwell’s lawyer claimed she was “prepared to speak fully and honestly if granted clemency by President Trump”.

Trump has said he has not thought about giving a pardon to Maxwell.