1) What he said was actually pretty sweet, using his moment in the spotlight to accept responsibility for his actions and express sincere regret to his former partner.
2) She might not want to be reminded of the pain he caused her. I doubt she will take him back, and that is what he really wants.
I follow biathlon all season every season. Perhaps the best sport in the world given the drama and magnitude of every single race. And incredibly easy to follow since every race is available on Eurovisionsport.com without spoilers.
Lagreid has long been considered one of the good guys in the sport. That's what is so shocking about this. He can't overcome it. The general sports public will remember him for this and nothing else. He became Ryan Lochte for no reason at all.
Lagreid burst onto the scene roughly 5 years ago and won lots of races in his first full season, coming very close to upsetting the legend Johannes Thingnes Boe for the overall world cup title. It came down to the final race where they were head to head and Boe prevailed based on superior ski speed.
From that point forward Lagreid had tremendous following and support among biathlon fans. He is known for playing the guitar and having a tremendous singing voice. On the circuit he had lots of second place finishes behind Boe before finally winning the overall title last season when Boe lost points after skipping some races.
Lagreid was favored for the big globe again this season. But he was quickly swamped by teammate Johan Olav Botn, who won the individual Olympic event with Lagreid bronze. It's incredible that Lagreid didn't self edit and understand it was not the time or place to mention the cheating episode, even if he was stupid enough to believe it belonged in public discourse in the first place.