50 kilometres (Mass Start, Freestyle), Men

This event was run in freestyle and was a mass start for the first time in Olympic history. Conditions were perfect with a sunny day, and a temperature of 3° C. (37° F.). There was no clear favorite. The race was extremely close. At the final checkpoint, at 40.0 km, less than eight seconds separated the top 21 skiiers, and that 21st skier was Yevgeny Dementyev, who had earlier won the pursuit gold medal in Torino. Dementyev moved to the lead over the last 10 km, but he was caught at the line by Italian Giorgio Di Centa, who won the marathon by 0.8 seconds, the closest finish in the event at the Winter Olympics. The previous closest finish had been 8.1 seconds in 1998 when Bjørn Dæhlie defeated Niklas Jonsson. Di Centa was the younger brother of Manuela Di Centa, Italian cross-country skier who won seven Olympic medals. This was Giorgio Di Centa’s only major win in the men’s longest distance race.