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| Event type

50 kilometres (Classical), Men

Date23 February 2002 — 9:30
StatusOlympic
LocationSoldier Hollow, Wasatch Mountain State Park
Participants61 from 24 countries
DetailsCourse Length: 50,016 m
Height Differential: 123 m
Intermediate 1: 13.1 km
Intermediate 2: 25.4 km
Intermediate 3: 40.5 km
Maximum Climb: 51 m
Total Climbing: 1,794 m

In 2001 Johann Mühlegg of Spain won the 50 km World Championship in Lahti, Finland. Mühlegg was a German émigré who obtained Spanish citizenship in 1999, and who had competed for Germany at the 1992, 1994, and 1998 Winter Olympics. However, in a random blood test shortly before Salt Lake City, Mühlegg was found to have an elevated hematocrit level, indicating possible drug use. Only a few minutes later, however, a repeat test showed an acceptable hematocrit level, and Mühlegg was allowed to continue competing. By the time this race started, he had apparently won two gold medals at the 2002 Winter Olympics, in the pursuit and 30 km. In the 50 km race the early leader was Russian Mikhail Ivanov who had been bronze medalist at the 2001 Worlds in the 30 km. He was still leading at the final 40.5 km checkpoint, but on the last lap would be passed by Mühlegg, who finished very quickly. Rounding out the podium appeared to be Estonia’s Andrus Veerpalu, who had won the 15 km gold 11 days before, and was well ahead of Norwegian Odd Bjørn Hjelmeset.

But that podium did not last long. Mühlegg failed his post-race doping screen, testing positive for darbopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue. He was disqualified from the race, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in December 2003 that he should be stripped of all three gold medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics. Thus, Ivanov was moved up to the gold medal, Veerpalu to silver, and Hjelmeset won the bronze. A few days later after the 2002 Winter Olympics ended, housecleaners working on the house used by the Austrian cross-country team found blood transfusion equipment. After an investigation, two of the Austrian skiers, Marc Mayer and Achim Walcher, were disqualified from the 2002 Winter Olympics for probable blood doping, This also affected the standings in this race, as Mayer had originally placed 25th.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
127Mikhail IvanovRUS2-06:20.8Gold
230Andrus VeerpaluEST2-06:44.5Silver
324Odd-Bjørn HjelmesetNOR2-08:41.5Bronze
413Andreas SchlütterGER2-08:54.8
531Mikhail BotvinovAUT2-09:21.7
69Hiroyuki ImaiJPN2-09:41.3
728Anders AuklandNOR2-10:05.7
825Lukáš BauerCZE2-10:41.9
932Frode EstilNOR2-10:44.8
1036Erling JevneNOR2-12:06.6
1121Giorgio Di CentaITA2-12:59.6
122Martin BajčičákSVK2-13:07.9
133Andrey NevzorovKAZ2-13:53.1
1438Fabio MajITA2-14:32.4
1529Vladimir VilisovRUS2-14:37.5
167Magnus IngessonSWE2-14:48.6
1733Per ElofssonSWE2-14:50.6
1817Raul OlleEST2-15:00.0
1911Jiří MagálCZE2-15:06.8
201Juan Jesús GutiérrezESP2-15:14.4
2148Jens FilbrichGER2-15:44.8
2215Roman LeibiukUKR2-15:50.9
2310Andrey GolovkoKAZ2-16:42.2
2420Sergey KryaninRUS2-16:59.8
2534Ivan BátorySVK2-17:25.2
2644Fabio SantusITA2-17:41.4
2722Masaaki KozuJPN2-17:51.9
2826Aleksey ProkurorovRUS2-18:30.4
2939Mathias FredrikssonSWE2-18:42.1
3023Sami PietiläFIN2-19:10.7
3150Karri HietamäkiFIN2-19:32.0
3254Wilhelm AschwandenSUI2-19:33.9
3312John BauerUSA2-19:35.7
3457Maksim OdnodvortsevKAZ2-19:50.3
3547Igor ZubrilinKAZ2-20:25.7
3635Markus HaslerLIE2-20:31.8
3719Reto BurgermeisterSUI2-20:43.3
3849Katsuhito EbisawaJPN2-21:05.3
398Donald FarleyCAN2-21:26.5
4014Aliaksei TrehubouBLR2-22:29.3
4161Hiroshi KudoJPN2-23:02.3
4245Petr MichlCZE2-23:43.3
4318Ričardas PanavasLTU2-23:56.4
4446Aliaksandr SannikouBLR2-24:14.2
4560Patrick RölliSUI2-24:34.4
466Aliaksandr ShalakBLR2-24:37.2
4763Kuisma TaipaleFIN2-24:40.5
4852Meelis AasmäeEST2-27:18.8
4955Milan ŠperlCZE2-28:28.8
5053Vladislavas ZybailaLTU2-29:27.4
5156Andrew JohnsonUSA2-32:44.3
5216Damir JurčevićCRO2-35:54.9
5343Denis KlobučarCRO2-35:58.8
5451Han DaweiCHN2-44:50.0
5562Vadim GusevasLTU2-45:23.0
5659Aram HadzhiyanARM2-48:48.1
5764Alexander PennaBRA3-23:58.7
DNF40Haritz ZunzuneguiESP
DNF42Justin WadsworthUSA
DQ37Johann MühleggESP[2-06:05.9]1
DQ5Marc MayerAUT[2-16:51.1]2
DNS58Mikalai SemeniakoBLR
DNS41Niklas JonssonSWE
DNS4Patrick WeaverUSA