Norway ended a 16-year drought at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Sunday. The four man team put their best in position to hold off all others and win the men’s 4x10km relay. The Olympic Athletes from Russia earned the silver for a second consecutive Olympics with France pulling off the same feat for bronze.
Half the team representing Sweden return for a shot at repeating as gold medalist. Despite having a different look, the Olympic Athletes from Russia would try and match that of their silver medal finish in Sochi. France would also try and pull off a repeat of their bronze and hold off Finland and Norway from getting a medal. The race consisted of three laps for each leg run spanning 3.3 kilometers each.
Norway led the way with the 13 other nations in tow in the first few minutes of the competition. By the time two laps were in the books, it was six teams that stayed together with Norway continuing to lead. They came in for the first exchange with just five of them but on the last hill, the competitors split apart leaving a lot of room between one another. In a surprising turn of events, Kazakhstan ran in first with the OAR right behind him. Italy and France rounded out the top four to go into the first hill and challenge the two who widened the gap.
Alexander Bolshunov took off on his own ahead of the Kazak who slid back by ten seconds through the next three checkpoints. Bolshunov opened to 41 seconds when he entered to complete the second lap. When the OAR came to the halfway point of the race, he grew a gap of more than 24 seconds which was 40 during the second lap but remained large. Italy, France and Norway continued to stay together while Kazakhstan fell back by more than 20 of the Norwegians.
Before the OAR could complete the final lap of the third leg, the contingency of Norway France and Italy chased down the lead to overtake him on the first hill. Despite skiing behind them, the OAR remained on the tail of France and Norway while Italy fell back. When the final exchange took place, it was Simen Hegstad Krueger who knew what coming back was like to keep his country out front with Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo anchoring Norway. France was just four tenths of a second back making it look possible for them to repeat for the first time ever. The OAR were 16 seconds back of the leaders taking them out of a run for the gold medal.
Denis Spitsov was the best to go for the Russians and pulled off an amazing feat to catch up the two. When two laps went into the books with one to go, Spitsov made it possible setting a pace that France couldn’t stay in with. It was down to Klaebo and Spitsov in the final one and a half kilometers with every turn and downhill huge. The two changed leads with the Norwegian gaining the advantage of downhills taking off fast. He came into the stadium all alone as the Norwegians stepped up to become gold medalists for the first time since the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City.
The OAR finished nine seconds back with France repeating once again with the bronze medal achieving such a feat for the first time ever.
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