30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men

The event consists of a 15 km section in the classical technique, followed immediately – after a change of skis – by another 15 km in the freestyle technique. The field included 2010 Olympic champion Marcus Hellner of Sweden and reigning World Champion, the Swiss Dario Cologna. However, both had recently been plagued by injuries and health problems. Therefore, home favorite Aleksandr Legkov and Norway’s Petter Northug were counted among the potential winners. Martin Johnsrud Sundby of Norway led a large group of skiers at the half way mark. A group of only four – Cologna, Hellner, Sundby and Russian Maksim Vylegzhanin – were in the lead approaching the final uphill stage. Hellner made an effort to break away from the quartet on the final climb, but was unsuccessful. Since none of the skiers could establish a decisive lead, it came down to a sprint to the finishing line, Cologna managing to win the gold, beating Hellner by only 0.4 sec. A second behind, Sundby, who had done much of the donkey work by frequently leading the race, took the bronze with Vylegzhanin missing the medals by just 0.1 sec.

In May 2016 WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) commissioned a report, the McLaren Report, to look into allegations of systematic Russian doping and a cover-up to avoid positives at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The report was released in two parts, in July and December 2016, and confirmed the allegations. In 2017 the IOC formed a commission to investigate this, headed by IOC Member Dennis Oswald, and usually referred to as the Oswald Commission. In late October 2017 the Oswald Commission began to release its findings. On 9 November 2017, the fourth-place finisher in this event, Maksim Veglyzhanin, was implicated by the Oswald Commission and was disqualified.