Cross-Country Skiing 2022/Men's 15 km

Men's 15 km
General information
Sport	Cross-Country Skiing 2022
Date	11 February 2022
Competitors	99 athletes
Venue	Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Dario Cologna
Silver	Simen Hegstad Krueger
Bronze	Denis Spitsov
Conditions
Temperature	-4°C / 24.8°F
Length	15018 metres
Height	82 metres
Medalists
	Iivo Niskanen
	Alexander Bolshunov
	Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo

The men's 15 km of Cross-Country Skiing 2022 during the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 11 February 2022 in the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre. With 99 athletes competing, the event was won by Iivo Niskanen from Finland, with Alexander Bolshunov from ROC taking the silver medal and Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo from Norway taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of four rounds of 3.75 kilometres in the classic technique. The athletes started 30 seconds from each other. The competitor with the fastest time after 15 kilometres is the winner.

Preview

Ninety-nine athletes qualified for the event with Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo and Alexander Bolshunov as two of the big names in the field. Klaebo was the leader of the World Cup standings and won the sprint distance, but had an off-day during the skiathlon a few days prior. Bolshunov dominated the skiathlon, winning against his countryman Denis Spitsov by over a minute. Other seeded athletes also included Paal Golberg, Hans Christer Holund, and Erik Valnes as a strong Norwegian delegation, Alexey Chervotkin, Ivan Yakimushkin, and Ilia Semikov as the team representing the ROC, and Lucas Boegl, Jonas Baumann, Michal Novak, and Iivo Niskanen.

The three youngest competitors in the field were all born in the year 2003: Aleksandar Grbovic, Cirenzhandui and Hugo Hinckfuss all made their Olympic debuts in Beijing. The oldest comeptitor Carlos Andres Quintana also made his Olympic debut in Beijing, with a quartet of athletes just a year younger than the Colombian: Snorri Eythor Einarsson, Dario Cologna, Maurice Manificat, and Yonathan Jesus Fernandez. Manificat and Cologna were also two of seven athletes to make their fourth appearance at the Olympic Games, with over half of the competitors in the field making their Olympic debuts.

Results

Iivo Niskanen won his fourth Olympic medal and second medal in Beijing, after he won bronze in the skiathlon a few days prior. He also won previous gold medals in the team sprint in 2014 and in the mass start in 2018. Alexander Bolshunov won his sixth Olympic medal in total, and completed his collection to win an Olympic medal in every single men's event in cross-country skiing. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo also added to his impressive medal collection, winning his fifth Olympic medal and first bronze medal, after he had already won four Olympic titles. Hans Christer Holund missed out on his second Olympic medal by almost 15 seconds, after the Norwegian had won a bronze medal in the men's skiathlon in 2018. Alexey Chervotkin recorded his first individual top-5 finish, while Perttu Hyvarinen also recorded his best result as of yet. Hugo Lapalus and Jens Burman completed the top 7 within a minute from the medals.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Iivo Niskanen	Finland	37:54.8
	Alexander Bolshunov	ROC	38:18.0
	Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo	Norway	38:32.3
4	Hans Christer Holund	Norway	38:44.6
5	Alexey Chervotkin	ROC	38:51.7
6	Perttu Hyvarinen	Finland	39:00.2
7	Hugo Lapalus	France	39:09.6
8	Jens Burman	Sweden	39:26.8
9	Ilia Semikov	ROC	39:34.7
10	William Poromaa	Sweden	39:42.5
11	Paal Golberg	Norway	39:47.4
12	Maurice Manificat	France	39:49.7
13	Ivan Yakimushkin	ROC	39:52.6
14	Thomas Maloney Westgaard	Ireland	40:01.5
15	Erik Valnes	Norway	40:06.8
16	Jonas Baumann	Switzerland	40:09.7
17	Lucas Boegl	Germany	40:13.9
18	Francesco De Fabiani	Italy	40:16.4
19	Jonas Dobler	Germany	40:21.0
20	Janosch Brugger	Germany	40:24.5
21	Johan Haeggstroem	Sweden	40:30.9
22	Giandomenico Salvadori	Italy	40:33.2
23	Mika Vermeulen	Austria	40:37.8
24	Ireneu Esteve Altimiras	Andorra	40:39.4
25	Vitaliy Pukhkalo	Kazakhstan	40:39.6
26	Calle Halfvarsson	Sweden	40:46.8
27	Dominik Bury	Poland	40:48.4
28	Ristomatti Hakola	Finland	40:49.6
29	Olivier Leveille	Canada	40:52.0
30	Paul Constantin Pepene	Romania	40:52.7
31	Adam Fellner	Czech Republic	41:01.0
32	Albert Kuchler	Germany	41:07.1
33	Remi Drolet	Canada	41:07.7
34	Paolo Ventura	Italy	41:12.2
35	Alvar Johannes Alev	Iceland	41:12.5
36	Snorri Eythor Einarsson	Iceland	41:17.6
37	Antoine Cyr	Canada	41:17.7
38	Scott Patterson	United States	41:23.1
39	Imanol Rojo	Spain	41:24.2
40	Yevgeniy Velichko	Kazakhstan	41:27.3
41	Shang Jincai	China	41:29.6
42	Ben Ogden	United States	41:29.8
43	Ryo Hirose	Japan	41:30.5
44	Dario Cologna	Switzerland	41:39.9
45	Remi Lindholm	Finland	41:40.0
46	Andrew Musgrave	Great Britain	41:44.7
47	Liu Rongsheng	China	41:51.7
48	Gus Schumacher	United States	41:53.4
49	Richard Jouve	France	41:56.6
50	Michal Novak	Czech Republic	42:06.6
51	Andrew Young	Great Britain	42:24.0
52	Maicol Rastelli	Italy	42:25.4
53	Jason Rueesch	Switzerland	42:29.8
54	Petr Knop	Czech Republic	42:34.4
55	Miha Licef	Slovenia	42:43.4
56	Martin Himma	Estonia	42:44.4
57	Badelihan Hadesi	China	42:48.1
58	Peter Mlynar	Slovakia	42:49.9
59	Thibaut de Marre	Belgium	42:56.7
60	Mateusz Haratyk	Poland	43:00.3
61	Mikayel Mikayelyan	Armenia	43:09.1
62	Raimo Vigants	Latvia	43:10.9
63	Cirenzhandui	China	43:22.2
64	Raul Mihai Popa	Romania	43:25.3
65	Achbadrakh Batmunkh	Mongolia	43:29.9
66	James Clinton Schoonmaker	United States	43:31.6
67	Hiroyuki Miyazawa	Japan	43:47.5
68	Yahor Shpuntau	Belarus	44:05.2
69	Vili Crv	Slovenia	44:12.9
70	Henri Roos	Estonia	44:17.8
71	Miha Simenc	Slovenia	44:20.8
72	Seve de Campo	Australia	44:21.2
73	Mark Chanloung	Thailand	44:27.0
74	Roberts Slotins	Latvia	44:44.8
75	Phil Bellingham	Australia	44:46.8
76	Lars Young Vik	Australia	44:50.6
77	Oleksii Krasovskyi	Ukraine	44:59.8
78	Ruslan Perekhoda	Ukraine	45:05.6
79	Kim Min-woo	South Korea	45:21.6
80	Adam Konya	Hungary	45:48.9
81	Hugo Hinckfuss	Australia	46:05.9
82	Jeong Jong-won	South Korea	46:34.6
83	Tautvydas Strolia	Lithuania	46:53.1
84	Danyal Saveh Shemshaki	Iran	47:26.0
85	Marko Skender	Croatia	48:30.8
86	Franco Dal Farra	Argentina	48:35.5
87	Strahinja Eric	Bosnia and Herzegovina	48:38.3
88	Jose Cabeca	Portugal	49:12.0
89	Timo Juhani Gronlund	Bolivia	49:27.0
90	Manex Silva	Brazil	50:35.1
91	Yonathan Jesus Fernandez	Chile	50:36.6
92	Elie Tawk	Lebanon	51:46.5
93	Aleksandar Grbovic	Montenegro	52:44.9
94	Jonathan Soto Moreno	Mexico	53:30.0
95	Carlos Andres Quintana	Colombia	55:41.9
-	Yusuf Emre Firat	Turkey	DNF
-	Samuel Uduigowme Ikpefan	Nigeria	DNF
-	Jan Pechousek	Czech Republic	DNS
-	Aliaksandr Voranau	Belarus	DNS