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| Event type

15 kilometres (Classical), Men

Date14 February 2014 — 14:00
StatusOlympic
LocationKompleks Dlya Sorevnovaniy Po Lyzhnym Gonkam i Biatlonu Laura, Mountain Cluster, Krasnaya Polyana
Participants91 from 45 countries
DetailsCourse Length: 14,931 m
Height Differential: 90 m
Intermediate 1: 2.2 km
Intermediate 2: 8.0 km
Intermediate 3: 12.5 km
Maximum Climb: 56 m
Total Climbing: 544 m

Russian Aleksandr Bessmertnykh set the early pace in this event, where skiers started at 30 second intervals. Then the 21-year-old Finn Iivo Niskanen went off at a tremendous pace which was matched by only the more experienced Swiss Dario Cologna, winner of the skiathlon six days prior, and Sweden’s Johan Olsson. Two of the most prominent runners did not even appear in this event, Russian Aleksandr Legkov, winner of the last World Cup race over this distance, and 15 km freestyle World Champion Norwegian Petter Northug, Jr.. On the later part of the course, Olsson began to gain on Niskanen to finish 10.5 sec faster than the Finn. Next on the course was Cologna, who used Olsson’s splits for guidance, and was by far the fastest skier in the last 7 km, finishing 28.5 seconds ahead of the Swede to win the gold. While Niskanen was already hoping to win the first cross-country medal for his country in Sochi, Swede Daniel Richardsson, starting 43rd, finished strongly to take the bronze medal by a mere 0.2 sec.

Veteran Lukáš Bauer of the Czech Republic, attempting to win a third consecutive 15 km medal in his fifth Olympic Games, ultimately finished fifth, about 20 seconds out of the medals and almost one minute behind Cologna. Only three months after undergoing an ankle operation Cologna comfortably won his second gold medal in Sochi, defending his 15 km freestyle gold medal from Vancouver, this time in the classical style.

At the end of the race, Cologna waited until the final finisher, Roberto Carcelén of Peru, came across the line almost 38 minutes later, supporting his efforts by greeting him and congratulating him for finishing, despite competing with broken ribs sustained only a few days before. For this gesture, in 2015 Cologna was given the IOC President’s Trophy for Sportsmanship at a ceremony in Lausanne.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
135Dario ColognaSUI38:29.7Gold
234Johan OlssonSWE38:58.2Silver
343Daniel RickardssonSWE39:08.5Bronze
413Iivo NiskanenFIN39:08.7
537Lukáš BauerCZE39:28.6
652Chris JespersenNOR39:30.6
731Aleksandr BessmertnykhRUS39:37.71
826Axel TeichmannGER39:42.4
951Aleksey PoltoraninKAZ39:43.2
1048Marcus HellnerSWE39:46.9
1149Hannes DotzlerGER39:49.9
1233Eldar RønningNOR40:02.8
1353Martin Johnsrud SundbyNOR40:07.4
1429Jens FilbrichGER40:08.5
1528Lars NelsonSWE40:08.8
1647Dmitry YaparovRUS40:10.7
1740Sami JauhojärviFIN40:14.4
1845Pål GolbergNOR40:14.5
1942Stanislav VolzhentsevRUS40:15.0
2041Matti HeikkinenFIN40:17.8
2144Jean-Marc GaillardFRA40:22.8
2225Curdin PerlSUI40:27.8
2310Martin BajčičákSVK40:28.0
2411Jonas BaumannSUI40:33.2
2546Yevgeny BelovRUS40:36.82
2636Tim TscharnkeGER40:41.3
2760Philipp HälgLIE40:41.5
2814Ville NousiainenFIN40:52.6
294Maciej KreczmerPOL40:58.7
3022Francesco De FabianiITA41:00.8
3132Noah HoffmanUSA41:02.7
3230Dietmar NöcklerITA41:11.9
337Nikolay ChebotkoKAZ41:14.1
3421Yevgeny VelichkoKAZ41:16.4
3538Devon KershawCAN41:17.1
3627Mattia PellegrinITA41:20.1
3770Andrew YoungGBR41:29.6
3812Erik BjornsenUSA41:44.7
3939Ivan BabikovCAN41:49.2
4015Aivar RehemaaEST41:49.8
4120Veselin TsinzovBUL42:06.3
426Algo KärpEST42:16.5
4316Adrien BackscheiderFRA42:21.7
449Andrew MusgraveGBR42:25.7
4557Karel TammjärvEST42:27.7
461Sergey MikayelyanARM42:39.1
4718Brian GreggUSA42:42.0
482Fabio PasiniITA42:42.3
4954Aliaksandr LazutkinBLR42:45.1
5055Imanol RojoESP42:45.4
5164Peter MlynárSVK42:50.3
5223Kris FreemanUSA42:54.8
5317Siarhei DalidovichBLR42:55.4
5458Yerdos AkhmadiyevKAZ43:02.2
5565Sebastian GazurekPOL43:06.7
565Cyril MirandaFRA43:22.5
573Max HaukeAUT43:23.4
5868Martin MøllerDEN43:29.7
5924Mikhail SiamionauBLR43:36.0
6062Edi DadićCRO43:38.8
6159Raido RänkelEST43:38.9
628Paul PepeneROU43:39.4
6356Javier GutiérrezESP43:43.9
6469Paweł KliszPOL43:51.6
6519Graeme KillickCAN44:04.8
6663Maciej StaręgaPOL44:07.1
6766Callum SmithGBR44:14.7
6878Hwang Jun-HoKOR44:34.8
6971Oleksiy KrasovskyiUKR44:35.4
7072Vytautas StroliaLTU45:08.0
7173Sabahattin OğlagoTUR45:16.0
7281Sun QinghaiCHN45:28.2
7375Arvis LiepiņšLAT45:36.2
7485Sævar BirgissonISL45:44.2
7567Callum WatsonAUS45:46.5
7674Phil BellinghamAUS46:16.4
7761Milanko PetrovićSRB46:42.2
7880Milán SzabóHUN47:01.3
7983Seyed Sattar SeydIRI47:16.1
8086Boldyn ByambadorjMGL48:29.6
8179Darko DamjanovskiMKD48:34.9
8287Jan RossiterIRL48:44.6
8384Federico CicheroARG49:11.3
8488Tucker MurphyBER49:19.9
8589Nadeem IqbalIND55:12.5
8691Dachhiri SherpaNEP55:39.3
8792Roberto CarcelénPER1-06:28.9
DNF50Alex HarveyCAN
DNF77Rejhan ŠmrkovićSRB
DNF82Jānis PaipalsLAT
DNF90Gary di SilvestriDMA
DNS76Artur YeghoyanARM