His first world cup medal and a ticket to the 2018 Winter Olympics capped off an unforgettable weekend for Yukon skier Knute Johnsgaard.

The 24-year-old made history alongside Canadian teammates Devon Kershaw, Alex Harvey and Len Valjas when they skied onto the podium in the men’s 4x7.5-kilometre relay at the world cup in Ulricehamn, Sweden Sunday. The bronze medal was Canada’s first-ever men’s relay podium performance.

“After countless relays, Canada’s never pulled off a podium,” said Johnsgaard in an email to the Star. “There’s only one first time, so there’s nothing that can top this for us. It was a huge team effort. All four of us raced our hearts out for each other.”

Kershaw, a three-time Olympian led off the team, followed by two-time Olympian Harvey, who celebrated an individual win Saturday.

Johnsgaard skied third, trying to stay in contact with the lead group to hand off to Valjas, a giant at 6’7. known for his sprinting ability.

“The distance is really good for me. I only lost five seconds to the top guys. I knew Len was in really good shape so if I could keep in contact with the top guys in my leg, he could potentially come through for us,” said Johnsgaard in a Cross Country Canada news release.

It was only Johnsgaard’s second relay and the world cup rookie had started to walk away from the course when his veteran teammates told him to go to the finish as Valjas looked primed for a medal.

“This is all so new to me. It was only my second relay ever so to see Len come into podium position was an unreal feeling,” said Johnsgaard.

A relay medal has been on the minds of the staff at Cross Country Canada for some time. The nation’s last relay medal came in Canmore 30 years ago when a women’s team of Angela Schmidt-Foster, Carol Gibson, Jena McAllister and Marie-Andree Masson won the bronze.

Inspired by the men’s relay’s fifth-place finish in Nove Mesto last year, Cross Country Canada developed a podium strategy to get the men to perform well in the relay.

“The key was to have complete buy-in from everyone on the men’s team to focus on this team goal recognizing if all the parts came together – we had a podium chance,” said high performance director Tom Holland. “After sitting down with the team, we got that buy in and today shows what can happen. This is a big day – a huge day for our program.”

Last week, Johnsgaard wasn’t sure what the rest of his season would look like following a handful of top performances at the L.L. Bean US Ski Nationals in Park City, Utah. The competition was also used by the Canadian federation to decide on teams for the junior and U23 world championships as well as the senior world championships.

Johnsgaard got the OK for the senior world championship team, it will be his first time at the competition as he is in his first year as a senior.

As soon as he found out his world championships fate, the skier, who trains at the high performance centre in Canmore, Alta. decided to fly to Sweden to take part in the relay.

He made his case to the high performance committee.

“One of my goals this year was to spend as much time on the World Cup as I could, gaining experience. I’m taking all the opportunities I can. I knew this would be a particularly good opportunity,” said Johnsgaard. “The shorter distance of the relay suits me well. I knew I was feeling in good shape, and from my teammates’ results lately, it was clear they were too.

“I was able to convince the Cross Country Canada’s high performance director and my coaches to give me the go-ahead.”

He flew to Sweden mid-week and sat out Saturday’s 15-kilometre free event, which saw Harvey take gold.

“Relays are such a special race because it takes so many factors to pull off a good result. You need four healthy athletes who all need to have a great day in the same race – not to mention waxing and ski selection,” said Johnsgaard. “For countries like Norway, who have 30 world cup-level skiers to choose from and a team of waxing and support staff backed by millions of dollars, it’s usually easy to come up with a winning combination, but for us there are just four of us here. Everyone had to be on; the stars had to align.”

The work that goes into getting a skier on the start line is truly a team effort from the waxing to the coaching, to the additional support.

Coach Ivan Babikov and lead wax technician Yves Bilodeau were both competitive in the sport and raced for Canada at a number of Olympics.

“Seeing Yves Bilodeau who has been at this sport for more than 30 years in the finish with Babs crying was amazing,” said Harvey. “Both of them weren’t able to win this as athletes and we are so happy they are now a part of this.”

Valjas crossed the line half a second back from first place, just behind winners Norway and second-place Sweden.

“There was no pressure because we were clearly underdogs,” said Johnsgaard. “I’ll never forget rushing the finish line when our fourth man crossed the line .... It was the best feeling in the world.”

Valjas said he was fighting hard into the finish with his head down.

“I fought right to the end and when I looked up I saw three guys running at me. I put my arms out and grabbed them all like a big fish net,” he said.

“They were my brakes and it was the best feeling I have ever felt in cross-country skiing to have them in my arms.”

The team of four completed a five-year tradition of strumming an air guitar at the finish line following a podium performance and kept the party going in the wax room with a dance party.

Johnsgaard later found out that with the podium finish he had qualified for the Olympics.

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games would be his first.

“As if my first world cup podium wasn’t enough, I learned later that day that I had just qualified for the Olympics,” said Johnsgaard. “It’s still hard to believe. It was the best day of my life.”

Johnsgaard and the rest of the Canadian world cup team are now in Falun, Sweden for the next world cup.