The roles were switched at the women’s 15km Skiathlon Saturday at the Alpensia Cross Country Centre. Sweden’s Charlotte Kala made a big push with two kilometers left in the freestyle leg to win the gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. Norway’s Marit Bjeorgen ended her two gold medal winning streak to take silver and Finland’s Krista Pamakoski winning bronze.
The two-time defending champion along with the current silver medalist and bronze medalist respectively all returned to gain another medal in contention against the pack of 62 starters. American Jessica Diggins gained a huge spot to start up front with Heidi Weng, Ingvild Flugstad Osterberg and Kalla.
The top Swede led the way at the head of the pack through the first six minutes with all the major competitors alongside at the two and a quarter kilometer mark. At the five-kilometer mark, the pack was still very large with no clear signs of a leader from any of the defending medalists.
Prior to the six-kilometer mark, the defending gold medalist opened with a lead with the silver medalist and bronze medalist right behind her. The final one and a half kilometers were crucial to gain ground on the rest as freestyle skiing would conclude the competition switching to the required blades. Bjeorgen, Kalla and Weng were the first to exchange. When they got to the next course, Norway’s Weng, Osterberg and Bjoergen all came out as one to begin the second 7.5 kilometers. Diggins held in the top ten 5.4 seconds back of the lead showing her strengths to be up near them.
A big climb came two kilometers in with Switzerland’s Nathalie Von Siebenthal overtaking Bjoergen. Kalla ran fourth with Weng back in the seventh with Diggins right behind her in eighth. The downhill saw Bjoergen back out front with Kalla right on her tail in second at the 11.25km mark. The Swiss regained the lead going back up the hill with Von Siebenthal back in front. At the peak of the climb, Kalla got clear of everyone having the strength to overtake everyone in front of her and stretching a gap for herself.
With two kilometers to go the Swede opened the gap to 9.6 seconds on Bjoergen with Sweden’s Ebba Andersson and Pamakoski in the top four all 10.9 seconds or less from the lead. With Kalla completely in control, Bjoergen was in trouble with the Finn very much fighting to take her over with the others very close for a spot on the podium.
When it was all said and done, Kalla secured the gold medal seven seconds ahead with Bjoergen holding on for silver and Pamakoski winning bronze. Diggins had a solid finish in fifth with Poland’s Justnya Kowalczyk finishing way back in 17th compared to her sixth-place finish in 2014.
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