30 kilometres, Mass Start, Freestyle, Men

This was the first men’s Winter Olympic cross-country event skied entirely as a mass start race, which would later become the standard for most events. It was also the first men’s cross-country event in Salt Lake City, starting shortly after the women finished racing 15 km. There was no suspense over the winner of the event, however, as Spain’s Johann Mühlegg, a German émigré who obtained Spanish citizenship in 1999, dominated, taking the lead early, and winning by over two full minutes. Austrians Christian Hoffmann and Mikhail Botvinov, who had changed citizenship from Russia in 1996, finished second and third. At least the battle for the other medals was close, as Norwegian biathlon star Ole Einar Bjørndalen led the pack coming into the final lap, but was passed by the Austrians and Italian Pietro Piller Cottrer. Norway’s Kristen Skjeldal also passed Bjørndalen, who originally finished sixth. In the end, these five would battle out the medals over the final lap, with less than 13.5 seconds separating them, as Hoffmann outsprinted Botvinov to the line, winning by 1.3 seconds.

But two weeks later it would all change. On 23 February, Mühlegg won the 50 km, his third gold medal in Salt Lake City as he had also won the pursuit, only to fail his doping screen, testing positive for darbopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue. He lost the 50 km, and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled in December 2003 that he could be stripped of all three gold medals from the 2002 Winter Olympics. So the final standings eventually saw Hoffmann elevated to the gold medal, Botvinov the silver, and Skjeldal the bronze. As the FIS now changes the Winter Olympic program frequently, this was also the last 30 km race, at least for some time, as it was not held in 2006 or 2010, having first been contested at the Olympics in 1956.