Pyeongchang Olympics: Norway goes 1-2-3 in men's Skiathlon

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Norway ran the men’s 30Km Skiathlon at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Sunday. Simen Hegstad Krueger went for it all in the final lap that left him all alone in the last section before teammates Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund came in to win gold silver and bronze at the Alpensia Cross Country Centre. It was the first time any country swept the podium in the skiathlon with the 24-year-old winning his first gold medal.

The first men’s event saw the returning medalist start within the top 15 of the mass start. Cologna had the highest start in third while Hellner sat 14^th and Sundby in sixth. 68 men qualified for the chance including American Erik Bjornsen who started 26^th. Mid front in the mass, Krueger took a fall that caused a traffic jam right from the start. It put him way back with a lot of ground to recover from

After the first lap, things started to figure into shape with the leaders from winners of Sochi sitting first and second with Hellner out of sight. Both Sundby and Cologna remained close to one another in the top three after two laps with one to go before going freestyle. France’s Maurice Manificat who ran up front earlier was back with Cologna in the final meter and change of the first half. Sundby was four seconds back with Canada’s Alex Harvey sitting in third behind Cologna.

At the halfway point, Norway’s Joahannes Hoesflot Klaebo took over the first place with Harvey right behind him when switching skis. The leaders from the previous kilometer were down but not out of coming back from the short deficit. At the 18.75km mark completing a very fast lap, Sundby found himself back at the top of the lead pack with Krueger right on his tail. Denis Spitsov of the United Team got himself right behind the Norwegians in an attempt to stay there for the duration.

With nine to go it was Norway, Switzerland and France in the top six with the Norwegians having the advantage of most competitors in the lead pack. When they came to the front, Norway had four members between first and fifth positions. Things changed slightly with some athletes getting their names to the front before being overtaken by the veterans of the sport.

With 3.75 kilometers left, Krueger opened up a massive lead of 40 meters coming down the hill to the homestretch again. He gained a 14 second lead on Great Britain’s Andrew Musgrave giving himself a huge chance to take the gold early on. Two and a half kilometers were all that remained of the race for the first time Olympian widening the gap to 23 seconds. With the pack quite large behind him, it planned to be an important moment for all of them to take off to secure silver and bronze while they were still attainable.

With one and a half to go, Norway made their presence in second and third with Sundby and Holund taking it quickly to cut their teammates gap in half. The margin was 12 seconds with the last hill all that was left before flying into the finish. Norway looked very good to sweep the podium but as Krueger came down, he managed to ski into the finish alone winning gold by eight seconds at 1:16:20.

Krueger’s race was most dramatic as he went from starting seventh to going back way into 60^th before somehow coming back to win it all. Cologna finished the race in seventh while Heller again finished right where he started. Sundby’s silver medal finish clearly had him progressing through the Olympics with the possibility of making something happen going forward in the sport.