10 kilometres (Classical), Women

Justyna Kowalczyk was another skier who recovered from a serious injury sustained shortly before the Games to finally win the gold medal in her favorite event. In spite of her love of this event none of her previous four Olympic medals had come in the 10 km classic, and her first appearance in Sochi in the skiathlon had been a major disappointment.

Starting at 30 second intervals, the early leader was Russia’s Nataliya Zhukova who would eventually finish seventh overall. The first competitor to beat this time was German Stefanie Böhler, whose eventual sixth place was a major achievement, after a malignant tumor was discovered in her thyroid gland in 2012, which required two operations for removal. Finland’s Aino-Kaisa Saarinen became the first skier to beat 29 minutes, but this time still did not get her into the medal ranks. Starting as 43rd runner, Kowalczyk dominated the event from the start. She led at the 2.2 km mark and at the 5 km point, increased her advantage to 9.1 sec over Norway’s Marit Bjørgen, who had dominated the 10 km together with Kowalczyk for the last four years. Bjørgen was still on the silver medal rank at the 8 km mark, now 19.1 seconds behind Kowalczyk. But the Norwegian had raced in the sprints and tired badly in the final two kilometres, finishing fifth. Justyna Kowalczyk completed the course 18.4 seconds ahead of Sweden’s defending Olympic champion Charlotte Kalla, to take the gold. The bronze medal eventually went to Therese Johaug of Norway, the 2013 world champion and World Cup leader.

By winning the gold medal, Kowalczyk became the most decorated Polish athlete in Olympic Winter Games history, beating the record of four medals that she shared with ski jumper Adam Małysz.