Cross-Country Skiing 2022/Men's mass start

Men's mass start
General information
Sport	Cross-Country Skiing 2022
Date	19 February 2022
Competitors	61 athletes
Venue	Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Iivo Niskanen
Silver	Alexander Bolshunov
Bronze	Andrey Larkov
Conditions
Temperature	-16°C / 3.2°F
Length	28400 metres
Height	82 metres
Medalists
	Alexander Bolshunov
	Ivan Yakimushkin
	Simen Hegstad Krueger

The men's mass start of Cross-Country Skiing 2022 during the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 19 February 2022 in the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre. With 61 athletes competing, the event was won by Alexander Bolshunov from ROC, with Ivan Yakimushkin from ROC taking the silver medal and Simen Hegstad Krueger from Norway taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of four rounds of 8.33 kilometres in the free technique, with the athletes starting simultaneously. The competitor with the fastest time after 50 kilometres is the winner. Due to weather conditions, the race was shortened to 30 kilometres.

Preview

Sixty-one athletes qualified for the event with Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo as the leader of the World Cup standings and one of the big favorites for the title in the mass start, after winning four Olympic medals in the last two weeks. This feat was also achieved by defending silver medalist Alexander Bolshunov, who won the skiathlon event and seemed to be the biggest challenger for the Norwegian. The athletes representing ROC and the Norwegians dominated the World Cup, with aside from the two favorites, also Ivan Yakimushkin, Simen Hegstad Krueger, Artem Maltsev, Denis Spitsov, Sjur Roethe, and Hans Christer Holund among the top seeds. Michal Novak lead the competition for the two nations, followed by potential outsiders Friedrich Moch, Lucas Boegl, Andrew Musgrave, and Calle Halfvarsson.

Manex Silva was the youngest competitor in the field and the only athlete younger than 20 years old. He lead the younger generation which also included home competitors Liu Rongsheng, Chen Degen, as well as Olivier Leveille and Marko Skender, with all five making their Olympic debuts. Silva was over sixteen years younger than Snorri Eythor Einarsson, who made his second Olympic appearance. Dario Cologna and Maurice Manificat, the other two competitors born in 1986, were some of the most experienced in the field, with both making their fourth Olympic appearance. That milestone was also achieved by Yevgeniy Velichko and Andrew Musgrave, with six others following with their third edition of the Olympic Games. Twenty-six competitors made their Olympic debuts, with 2018 silver medalist Alexander Bolshunov once again competing in 2022, after defending champion Iivo Niskanen only entered other events.

Results

Alexander Bolshunov won his ninth Olympic medal and kept his 100% record in events he started in, winning his fifth Olympic medal in Beijing after only missing out on the sprint event. He also won the silver medal in the 2018 edition of the event and took his chance in absence of the 2018 Olympic champion. Ivan Yakimushkin was the second athlete representing the ROC on the podium, after he made his Olympic debut with a 13th place in the individual event a week prior, and won his first Olympic medal. Simen Hegstad Krueger also kept his 100% record of events he competed in, winning his fourth Olympic medal of which he won three in 2018. Artem Maltsev missed out on the medal sweep of the ROC by only four seconds, with what would have been his first Olympic medal at his Olympic debut, while Sjur Roethe also just missed out on his first Olympic medal by less than ten seconds. Five-time Olympic medalist Denis Spitsov was the fourth athlete from Russia in the top 6, while bronze medalist of the 2018 men's relay Clement Parisse and Scott Patterson completed the top 8.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Alexander Bolshunov	ROC	1:11:32.7
	Ivan Yakimushkin	ROC	1:11:38.2
	Simen Hegstad Krueger	Norway	1:11:39.7
4	Artem Maltsev	ROC	1:11:43.4
5	Sjur Roethe	Norway	1:11:48.5
6	Denis Spitsov	ROC	1:11:58.9
7	Clement Parisse	France	1:12:01.5
8	Scott Patterson	United States	1:12:06.6
9	William Poromaa	Sweden	1:12:29.1
10	Maurice Manificat	France	1:12:30.3
11	Roman Furger	Switzerland	1:13:24.8
12	Andrew Musgrave	Great Britain	1:13:29.3
13	Hans Christer Holund	Norway	1:13:30.2
14	Dario Cologna	Switzerland	1:13:31.1
15	Jules Lapierre	France	1:13:50.3
16	Jens Burman	Sweden	1:14:22.3
17	Jason Rueesch	Switzerland	1:14:48.4
18	Giandomenico Salvadori	Italy	1:14:49.1
19	Perttu Hyvarinen	Finland	1:14:49.5
20	Jonas Dobler	Germany	1:14:50.0
21	Imanol Rojo	Spain	1:14:50.5
22	Candide Pralong	Switzerland	1:14:50.5
23	Snorri Eythor Einarsson	Iceland	1:14:51.6
24	Naoto Baba	Japan	1:14:52.7
25	Ireneu Esteve Altimiras	Andorra	1:15:09.8
26	Florian Notz	Germany	1:15:32.2
27	Olivier Leveille	Canada	1:15:54.3
28	Remi Lindholm	Finland	1:15:55.6
29	Thomas Maloney Westgaard	Ireland	1:15:59.0
30	Dominik Bury	Poland	1:16:01.0
31	Friedrich Moch	Germany	1:16:03.6
32	Paolo Ventura	Italy	1:16:05.4
33	Lucas Boegl	Germany	1:16:11.5
34	Adrien Backscheider	France	1:16:16.6
35	Remi Drolet	Canada	1:16:27.1
36	Alvar Johannes Alev	Estonia	1:16:28.4
37	Petr Knop	Czech Republic	1:16:35.0
38	Calle Halfvarsson	Sweden	1:16:47.6
39	Leo Johansson	Sweden	1:17:16.5
40	Jan Koristek	Slovakia	1:17:26.0
41	Chen Degen	China	1:18:14.1
42	Adam Fellner	Czech Republic	1:18:14.3
43	Yevgeniy Velichko	Kazakhstan	1:18:43.8
44	Raimo Vigants	Latvia	1:18:55.2
45	Badelihan Hadesi	China	1:19:45.9
46	Wang Qiang	China	1:19:53.8
47	Thibaut de Marre	Belgium	1:19:53.8
48	Liu Rongsheng	China	1:19:58.5
49	Mark Chanloung	Thailand	1:20:11.5
50	Mateusz Haratyk	Poland	1:20:24.0
51	Seve de Campo	Australia	1:21:02.5
52	Strahinja Eric	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1:21:07.6
53	Phil Bellingham	Australia	1:23:03.8
54	Roberts Slotins	Latvia	1:24:46.4
55	Adam Konya	Hungary	1:25:21.4
56	Stavre Jada	North Macedonia	1:25:41.8
57	Marko Skender	Croatia	1:30:34.5
58	Manex Silva	Brazil	1:33:11.8
59	Apostolos Angelis	Greece	1:34:04.2
-	Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo	Norway	DNF
-	Michal Novak	Czech Republic	DNS