Norway’s Therese Johaug secured the gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. The 33-year-old crossed the line and watched her biggest opponents come across behind her time to win the women’s 10km classic at the Zhangjiakou National Cross Country Skiing Centre. Finland’s Kerttu Niskanen and teammate Krista Parmakoski took silver and bronze, holding their times against all others.
This marked the first-ever race of this distance in the classical form. Charlotte Kalla and Krista Parmakoski were experienced in the 10km freestyle, giving them a shot to win in the new event. American Jessie Diggins hoped to add another medal to the bronze she earned in the sprint on Tuesday. With 98 racers starting at 30-second intervals, the pace would be up to each individual on the 5km course. The unseeded athletes began first with the best coming later to the starting line.
Therese Johaug was the first to set a solid time of 28:06.3 with her biggest opponents arriving at any moment. Niskanen tried to cross the line sooner than Johaug but came through four tenths back. Parmakoski put in a time of 28:37.8 that put her in third with Diggins falling out of any chance for a medal. With 31 seconds separating silver and bronze, the door was clearly open for the remaining cross country skiers to take that away.
One of them was ROC athlete Natalia Nepryaeva, who came to the finish line with a decent window to threaten Parmakoski. The seconds ticked away as the Russian made her way to the finish line and when she crossed, she finished one-tenth ahead for fourth place.
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