15 kilometres, Men

Harald Grønningen had three Olympic silver medals from 1960 and 1964, placing second behind Eero Mäntyranta in the 1964 15 and 30 km race, and as a member of the 1960 Norwegian relay team, behind Finland, with Mäntyranta on the winning team. The popular Norwegian, nicknamed “Lang-Harald” due to his height of 191 cm, unusual among cross country skiers, could at last claim a gold medal as a member of Norway’s winning relay team at the 1966 World Championships. The 15 km race developed into a fierce duel between the Finnish defending champion and his Norwegian rival Grønningen, a strawberry farmer from Lensvik in Trøndelag. Now aged 33 and starting in his third and last Olympics, Grønningen was wearing start number 5 out of 75 competitors. He chose to start at top speed, and at 4 km he had already overtaken the four skiers starting ahead of him. At 5 km he was in the lead, nine seconds ahead of Mäntyranta with the silver medalist from the 30 km race, Odd Martinsen in third, only half a second behind the Finn. The Olympic Champion from the 30 km race three days earlier, Franco Nones, was totally out of contention in a distant 36th place. Mäntyranta was able to turn the tables at the 10 km checkpoint, taking the lead 10 seconds ahead of Grønningen. Kalevi Laurila had advanced from 5th to 3rd, only 5 seconds behind Grønningen. But the Norwegian veteran fought bravely in the final stages of the race. One and a half kilometers from the finish Mäntyranta was still 7 seconds ahead, but as in the 30 km race he had used most of his strength in the middle part of the race. He finished 1.9 seconds behind his Norwegian rival, and Grønningen could finally claim an individual gold medal. Behind the two rivals there was a close struggle for the bronze medal. The Swede Gunnar Larsson advanced from 8th place at 5 km to 6th place at 10 km, and a strong finish earned him the bronze medal, four seconds ahead of Laurila, who like Mäntyranta faded over the last 5 km. The Soviet skiers had a disappointing day, their best, Valery Tarakanov, finishing in 9th place, 1:10 behind the winner.