30 kilometres (Mass Start, Classical), Women

Having already established herself as the most successful Winter Olympic athlete of all time earlier in the Games, Marit Bjørgen improved her medal tally to 15 in the very last event at PyeongChang. After winning the 30 km race, she took her career total to eight gold, four silver and three bronze medals as she overtook fellow Norwegians Ole Einar Bjørndalen (8/4/1 in biathlon) and Bjørn Dæhlie (8/4/0 in cross country skiing), as the leading medalist.

Like Finland’s Iivo Niskanen, in the men’s 50 km race the day before, Bjørgen won the women’s longest cross-country race after a long solo run. After just 10 km, she broke away from the lead group that included some of the top skiers: Sweden’s gold medalists Charlotte Kalla (skiathlon) und Stina Nilsson (sprint), two times bronze medalist Krista Pärmäkoski, Kerttu Niskanen, the sister of the men’s 50 km winner, and relay gold medalist Ingvild Flugstad Østberg from Norway. The least expected runner in the top group was Austrian Teresa Stadlober, who was to become a tragic figure in a later phase.

When she changed her skies at the half way mark, Bjørgen was already 51 seconds ahead of the chasing group, and she kept increasing the pace, leading by 1:20 from Stadlober (second) and Pärmäkoski (third) with 10 km to go. Kalla was the first to drop out of the race for a medal, when she changed her skies, unlike the rest of the group, and never managed to close the gap again. As in the men’s event, the tactics of changing skies again proved to be a decisive factor.

With Bjørgen constantly increasing the lead, Stadlober caused the next excitement. When she tried to break away from Pärmäkoski, she made an unbelievable mistake, and took the wrong track. The detour cost her over one minute, and from a sure medal position, she dropped to eighth place. Now Pärmäkoski was Bjørgen’s main chaser and almost in reach of the silver medal. But behind her, Østberg, Nilsson and Niskanen, the sister of the 50 km winner, had not yet given up the fight to win more than bronze. They were in sight of Pärmäkoski, but the Finn held on to a lead of just 10 seconds to secure silver, with Nilsson narrowly defeating Østberg by just 1.5 seconds for third place. Niskanen, who was among the top five throughout the race, lost contact with Nilsson and Østberg when she changed her skies at 22.5 km, and was eventually overtaken by Kalla who finished fifth.

Like Sochi in 2014, and the last World Championships, gold went to Marit Bjørgen. She had a two-minute lead at the final intermediate time, which was reduced to 1:49.5 at the finishing line, as she celebrated victory on the home stretch, waving the flag of her home country. The Norwegian was the fastest skier in 15 out of 24 sectors, Nilsson was faster only in the last two sectors while fighting for bronze, and Pärmäkoski failed to clock the best time in any sector.