Bolshunov's bravery yields emphatic win

Biggest ever victory margin in skiathlon as Russians secure superb one-two finish

Alexander Bolshunov finally gained the gold medal he has been dreaming of on Sunday by powering to victory in the men's 30-kilometer cross-country skiathlon at Beijing 2022.

The 25-year-old comfortably fended off his Russian Olympic Committee teammate Denis Spitsov and two-time Olympic champion Iivo Niskanen of Finland with a time of 1 hour 16 minutes and 9.8 seconds. Spitsov clocked 1:17:20.8 to claim silver, with Niskanen taking bronze in 1:18:10.0.

The 71-second gap between first and second was easily the biggest victory margin in the race's Olympic history. The previous largest margin was Norwegian Simen Hegstad Krueger's eight-second triumph at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. Krueger was unable to defend his title after testing positive for COVID-19.

"My emotions cannot be expressed. I still have not realized that I am truly an Olympic champion," said a beaming Bolshunov.

"This last month, I believed in myself a lot and understood that I had to become an Olympic champion and I am especially happy that I was able to do it here in the first race."

Bolshunov won the overall World Cup title in 2020 and 2021. In his Olympic debut in 2018, he brought home three silver medals and a bronze.

Bolshunov and Niskanen led through the first four classic ski laps, before Spitsov passed Niskanen on the freestyle legs, which are contested on skate skis.

Bolshunov said that once he and Niskanen moved into the lead, he knew he had to seize his opportunity.

"When the race started and in the classic portion, Niskanen and I broke into the lead, I understood that this is a chance and I cannot let it go," the Russian said.

"I just started to work together with him and then on the free skate portion I understood that the most important thing was to get to the finish line without being overwhelmed by any personal emotions and to take my gold medal."

The event requires athletes to switch from classical to freestyle techniques after four laps of the 3.75-kilometer course.

Niskanen said his plan was to push on the classic legs, but the skate half was tougher.

"The pace was high after the first lap all the time and I couldn't hang with the Russians," he said. "They were so strong that it was a long race to push alone. To get the bronze, I'm happy about it."

Spitsov recovered from a fall late on, losing his footing as he took a drink, but by that point Niskanen was too far behind to exploit the opportunity.

Spitsov said he was pleased with how his skis worked in the classic section but admitted the closing stages were punishing.

"In the last three laps, I was just enduring the pain and dreaming for this race to end faster because it was very hard," he said.

Niskanen said he was pleased with bronze after finding the going extremely tough on the skate leg.

"It was a really long race. My plan was to do the job in the classic part. The pace was high after the first lap all the time and I couldn't hang with the Russians," he said. "They were so strong that it was a long race to push alone."

Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo of Norway, the overall World Cup leader, lost touch with the front group during the classic laps and continued to lose time. He finished in 40th place, a whopping 9:06 behind Bolshunov.

Klaebo dominates cross-country skiing, but his gold medals at Pyeongchang 2018 were in the free sprint, 4x10-kilometer relay and team sprint. Bolshunov stands just in front of him in the distance competition.

Air temperatures for Sunday's skiathlon were warmer than the women's race on Saturday, hovering around minus-11 Celsius. The winds were calmer, which helped with the wind chill, which dipped as low as minus-30 Celsius.

China entered four athletes in the 30-km skiathlon, with Liu Rongsheng the best finisher at 39th in 1:24:59.6.