Olympics: Cross-country skiing – Historic Bjoergen storms to mass start gold

FAN Editor
Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics
Cross-Country Skiing – Pyeongchang 2018 Winter Olympics – Women’s 30km Mass Start Classic – Alpensia Cross-Country Skiing Centre – Pyeongchang, South Korea – February 25, 2018 – Gold medallist Marit Bjoergen of Norway poses between silver medallist Krista Parmakoski of Finland and bronze medallist Stina Nilsson of Sweden. REUTERS/Toby Melville

February 25, 2018

By Philip O’Connor

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (Reuters) – Norway’s Marit Bjoergen stormed to gold in the women’s 30km mass start cross-country ski race, claiming her 15th Olympic medal in the final competition of the Pyeongchang Games on Sunday.

Bjoergen, the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, broke early and kept up a relentless pace to finish almost two minutes ahead of silver medalist Krista Parmakoski of Finland, with Stina Nilsson taking the bronze for Sweden.

The 37-year-old has been incredible in Pyeongchang, writing history in almost every race, and the eighth Olympic gold of her career and fifth medal overall at these Games puts her into two more select band of athletes.

Like Iivo Niskanen in Saturday’s men’s race, Bjoergen made an early break, gradually opening a gap and never looking back.

The chasing group of Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla, Finns Krista Parmakoski and Kerttu Niskanen and Teresa Stadlober of Austria would have hoped that Bjoergen would burn out and then fade away, but instead she built up a lead of almost a minute by the halfway mark.

A change of skis saw Kalla drop out of the chase briefly but it would make little difference to her chance of a gold medal with Bjoergen, rather than tiring, continuing to increase her lead. The Swede was left battling to get on the podium.

Kalla’s cause was helped when Stadlober took a wrong turn on the tight, winding course but it was team mate Stina Nilsson who came out of the pack to battle for bronze as Niskanen also fell away.

Bjoergen had the luxury of skiing at a leisurely pace over the line waving the Norwegian flag, while Parmakoski cruised in almost two minutes behind her to claim the silver.

Nilsson, who won the individual sprint medal and took silver in the team sprint, timed a late spurt to pas Ingvild Flugstad Oestberg, rounding her Norwegian opponent and beating her to the line for the bronze.

(Reporting by Philip O’Connor; Editing by Clare Fallon and Sudipto Ganguly)

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