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| Event type

50 kilometres (Classical), Men

Date27 February 1994 — 10:00
StatusOlympic
LocationBirkebeineren Skistadion, Lillehammer
Participants66 from 25 countries
DetailsCourse Length: ?
Height Differential: 166 m
Intermediate 1: 1.7 km
Intermediate 2: 7.8 km
Intermediate 3: 12.0 km
Intermediate 4: 26.3 km
Intermediate 5: 33.4 km
Intermediate 6: 47.1 km
Maximum Climb: 65 m
Total Climbing: 1,787 m

As always, the men’s marathon was the last event of the Olympic Program. Bjørn Dæhlie had already won two individual gold medals and was the defending champion. But he was always considered better in freestyle than classical, the style chosen for the 50 km in 1994. The other strongest skier of the past few years was Vladimir Smirnov, who had won the 1990-91 World Cup, and was in the process of winning again in 1993-94. But Smirnov always struggled in the 50 km, usually finishing poorly after good starts. He had won two silvers in Lillehammer but was not given much of a chance. The major contenders looked to be Russian Aleksey Prokurorov, the winner of the event at Holmenkollen in 1993, and Sweden’s Torgny Mogren, winner of the last two World Championships. But Sweden did not even nominate Mogren to start in the 50 km, leaving him for the 30 km, in which he placed 24th.

But something odd happened when the race was run. Smirnov started quickly and was second at the first checkpoint, but moved into the lead by the 7.8 km time check. He held that through 33.4 km, and then the strange occurrence came when, at the 47.1 km mark, he was still in the lead and skiing strongly. In fact, he had the best finish of any of the leaders, slowly down only in the last 3 kilometres when he had the race in hand, eventually winning by 1:21.6 over Finland’s Mika Myllylä. The next three finishers were Norwegian, but Dæhlie would not make the podium. Trailing only Smirnov through 33.4 km, he struggled in the last half of the race and placed fourth, behind his teammate, Sture Sivertsen.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
159Vladimir SmirnovKAZ2-07:20.3Gold
261Mika MyllyläFIN2-08:41.9Silver
372Sture SivertsenNOR2-08:49.0Bronze
466Bjørn DæhlieNOR2-09:11.4
560Erling JevneNOR2-09:12.2
647Christer MajbäckSWE2-10:03.8
758Maurilio De ZoltITA2-10:12.1
862Giorgio VanzettaITA2-10:16.4
969Mikhail BotvinovRUS2-10:18.9
1063Vegard UlvangNOR2-10:40.0
1156Silvio FaunerITA2-11:09.6
1267Harri KirvesniemiFIN2-11:19.3
1364Aleksey ProkurorovRUS2-11:52.8
1465Igor BadamshinRUS2-12:20.1
1534Alois StadloberAUT2-13:13.5
1651Jeremias WiggerSUI2-13:40.2
1752Aleksandr VorobyovRUS2-13:44.5
1871Jan OttossonSWE2-13:55.2
1937Juan Jesús GutiérrezESP2-14:22.5
2036Luboš BuchtaCZE2-14:50.0
2144Viktar KamotskiBLR2-15:02.9
2254Jaanus TeppanEST2-16:18.8
2333Patrick RemyFRA2-16:21.4
2432Kazunari SasakiJPN2-16:51.7
2518Ihar ObukhouBLR2-17:08.4
2617Andrus VeerpaluEST2-17:24.7
2770Niklas JonssonSWE2-17:54.9
2824Hiroyuki ImaiJPN2-17:55.2
2919Pavel RyabininKAZ2-18:08.1
3039Markus HaslerLIE2-18:40.1
3157Gianfranco PolvaraITA2-18:40.3
3249Ričardas PanavasLTU2-19:01.3
3327Cédric ValletFRA2-19:06.7
343Jordi RibóESP2-19:21.9
3528Justin WadsworthUSA2-19:49.1
362Taivo KuusEST2-19:51.9
3715Sami RepoFIN2-20:32.8
3830Stephan KunzLIE2-20:38.1
3953Todd BoonstraUSA2-20:41.0
4035Karri HietamäkiFIN2-20:50.9
4150Hans DiethelmSUI2-21:01.8
4222Carlos VicenteESP2-21:03.5
4343Vasil HorbachouBLR2-21:31.3
447Jürg CapolSUI2-21:48.3
4511Sergey MargatskyKAZ2-21:57.9
4610Philippe SanchezFRA2-22:01.0
4742Anthony EvansAUS2-22:05.2
488Kazutoshi NagahamaJPN2-22:30.2
499Pete VordenbergUSA2-22:53.1
5048Nikolay IvanovKAZ2-22:59.1
5138Dany BouchardCAN2-23:09.0
5226Antonio RačkiCRO2-23:23.4
5340Ben HusabyUSA2-23:37.3
5446Siniša VukonićCRO2-24:12.6
5555Daníel JakobssonISL2-24:57.0
5631Peter SchlickenriederGER2-25:22.4
5745Ebbe HartzDEN2-25:58.5
5821Ondřej ValentaCZE2-26:08.6
5914Mark GrayAUS2-28:51.6
6023Rögnvaldur IngþórssonISL2-32:52.9
616Jānis HermanisLAT2-36:11.1
DNF68Jochen BehleGER
DNF29Giachem GuidonSUI
DNF12Janko NeuberGER
DNF41Martin PetrásekCZE
DNF25Elemer-György TankoROU
DNS4Siarhei DalidovichBLR
DNS5Pavel BencCZE
DNS13Michael BinzerDEN
DNS20Dave BelamGBR
DNS1Torald ReinGER
DNS16Mathias FredrikssonSWE