Cross Country Skiing at the 2018 Winter Olympics

The cross-country events took place at the Mountain Cluster of the Alpensia resort, approximately 20 km southwest of Gangneung, and 150 km east of the capital Seoul. The Alpensia Cross-Country Centre was completed in 1995, and hosted the cross-country skiing events at the 1999 Asian Winter Games. The complex also included the Biathlon and Ski Jumping Centres.

Unlike Sochi, the weather was cold, but stable throughout the events, and provided excellent conditions for all competitors. The program was basically unchanged but, as has become common since the introduction of separate freestyle and classical events, those events that were held in the classical style in Sochi, were held in freestyle in PyeongChang, and vice-versa, with the events that combine both styles (skiathlon and relay) unchanged.

Norway was clearly the dominating country with seven gold, four silver and three bronze medals, winning 50 % of the possible medals, and three more than their Sochi haul. Amongst others, Norway took the gold in both relays and completed a clean sweep in the men’s skiathlon. Their 14 medals were evenly distributed between men’s and women’s events, improving particularly the men’s results from Sochi. Their Scandinavian rivals, Sweden, followed them with just two gold, three silvers and one bronze, all won exclusively in the women’s events. Not a single medal went to Sweden in eight men’s cross-country events, as their medal count of Sochi was almost cut in half. However, Finland, with one gold, one silver and two bronze, matched their Sochi medal tally thanks to Iivo Niskanen winning the prestigious men’s 50 km mass start classic, and Krista Pärmäkoski winning the other three medals in the women’s events. Swiss Dario Cologna was one of the stars of previous games, and added another gold to his collection in PyeongChang, his third consecutive gold in the 15 km run (twice in the free and one in the classical style).

Although, a number of Russian skiers including Aleksandr Legkov and Maksim Vylegzhanin were exonerated and their medals restored by CAS a few days before the Games, their participation was not approved by the IOC. Nevertheless, the young athletes of the team OAR were quite successful with eight medals (0-3-5) but missed the top of the podium. A surprise result was the victory of the US duo in the women’s team sprint, free. The rest of the medals went to just two other European countries, further reducing the number of countries with medals from nine in Sochi to eight in PyeongChang.

Two female skiers added further laurels to their already impressive Olympic career: Sweden’s Charlotte Kalla, at her third Olympics, brought home a gold and three silvers to bring her career total to nine medals (3-6-0). With 10 medals, Norway’s Marit Bjørgen was already the most decorated female cross-country skier in the Winter Olympic, but after winning five more medals (2-1-2) at her fifth Olympics, she took her total medal count to 15 (8-4-3).