Olympics Men’s 4 x 10 km Relay medal results, highlights and more

Norway added a third men’s Olympic cross-country skiing gold to the trophy case in the 4 x 10 km relay. Here’s how the Norwegians bested the OAR team.

The fun of a relay race is that there is always a cat-and-mouse game going on throughout the race. That is true in any sport, but it holds form especially well in cross-country skiing. Much like cycling, a marginal increase in effort expended can open up or close down a gap quickly.

The trade-off is in energy expended, of course. What is also fascinating about a relay race is that it affords an opportunity to see even more moving parts trying to negotiate the course and carve out as much time as possible without blowing up and bonking.

Norway set up its team perfectly to capture Olympic gold. The Norwegians were able to backload the team with a pair of skiers who had already claimed a gold medal in the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. In the second spot was another skier with a medal already in 2018.

MEDAL RESULT | Cross-country skiing men's 4 x 10 km relay

Team Norway

Team Olympics

Team France

On the first leg was the only skier on the team without an Olympic medal yet in these games for Norway. Didrik Tønseth has been part of the past two FIS world champion relay teams for Norway in 2015 and 2017. The 26-year-old got the honor of starting things off for Norway at Alpensia Cross-Country Centre, and he held the lead about six kilometers in before fading to fifth.

Martin Johnsrud Sundby let the gap string out further once he was tapped in by Tønseth. Two-thirds into his leg of the 4 x 10 km relay, Sundby was behind Alexander Bolshunov. Skiing under the Olympic flag, the Russian team looked strong in the first two legs of the race.

Then Norway’s gold medalists got their chances to ski.

Simen Hegstad Krüger was 22 seconds behind Alexey Chervotkin once he started skiing the third leg. By the time he handed off the duties to anchor Johannes Klæbo, the Norwegians were in the lead. Klæbo allowed Adrien Backscheider pass him to give France the nominal lead. But the Norwegian was simply using Backscheider as his pace man, stringing out a lead on the breakaway and forcing Russian anchor Denis Spitsov to expend a lot of effort.

In the end, it came down to the Olympics Athletes from Russia and the Norwegian side. Klæbo broke away just over a kilometer from the finish. The gold medalist in the sprint looked as fresh as possible after nine kilometers. Spitsov faded behind, his finishing kick no match for the sprint champion.

Norway emerged as the 4 x 10 km champions for the first time since the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in 2002. The Olympic Athletes from Russia finished 9.4 seconds behind, with France rounding out the podium 36.9 seconds behind the Norwegians.

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