Cross-Country Skiing 2022/Men's skiathlon

Men's skiathlon
General information
Sport	Cross-Country Skiing 2022
Date	6 February 2022
Competitors	70 athletes
Venue	Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Simen Hegstad Krueger
Silver	Martin Johnsrud Sundby
Bronze	Hans Christer Holund
Conditions
Temperature	-10°C / 14°F
Length	30680 metres
Height	57 metres
Medalists
	Alexander Bolshunov
	Denis Spitsov
	Iivo Niskanen

The men's skiathlon of Cross-Country Skiing 2022 during the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 6 February 2022 in the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre. With 70 athletes competing, the event was won by Alexander Bolshunov from ROC, with Denis Spitsov from ROC taking the silver medal and Iivo Niskanen from Finland taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of eight rounds of 3.75 kilometres, of which the first four laps in the free technique and the last half in the classical technique. The athletes started simultaneously, with the competitor with the fastest time after 30 kilometres winning the event.

Preview

Seventy athletes qualified for the event with the Norwegian and Russian athletes as the big favorites for the title. Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo was the top seed and leader of the world rankings, but defending bronze medalist Hans Christer Holund, Paal Golberg, and Sjur Roethe made up a strong Norwegian team, while Alexander Bolshunov, Alexey Chervotkin, Artem Maltsev, and Denis Spitsov were all ranked inside the top 6 of the World Cup rankings. Other medal contenders also included Iivo Niskanen, Hugo Lapalus, Francesco De Fabiani, and Michal Novak.

Manex Silva was the youngest competitor in the field as the only athlete younger than 20 years old. He was a year younger than home competitors Liu Rongsheng and Chen Degen, followed by Olivier Leveille as the four athletes born in the 21st century. On the other side, Snorri Eythor Einarsson was the oldest competitor at the age of 35, though he was not the one with the most experience. Maurice Manificat was due to compete at his fourth edition of the Olympic Games at the age of 35, as he was only a month younger than Einarsson, though the milestone was also achieved by Yevgeniy Velichko, Andrew Musgrave, and Paul Constantin Pepene. Of the 2018 Olympic medalists, only the bronze medalist Hans Christer Holund competed again in 2022, with Simen Hegstad Krueger only competing in the mass start event.

Results

Alexander Bolshunov continued where he finished in 2018, winning his fifth Olympic medal in as many starts, though the skiathlon was one of two events he did not compete in in 2018, and he crowned himself as Olympic champion for the first time. Denis Spitsov made sure of the gold and silver medals being won by the same nation for the second edition in a row after Norway swept the medals in 2018. Spitsov won his fourth Olympic medal and third silver medal, after he also won the same color in the the team sprint and the men's relay in 2018. Iivo Niskanen also won his third Olympic medal, after he won gold in the team sprint in 2014 and the mass start in 2018. Hans Christer Holund just missed out on the medals after his bronze medal in 2018, and his compatriot Paal Golberg recorded his second top 5 result, after he finished fourth in the men's sprint in 2018. William Poromaa finished on sixth place at his Olympic debut, with Perttu Hyvarinen as the fifth Scandinavian skier in the top 7.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Time
	Alexander Bolshunov	ROC	1:16:09.8
	Denis Spitsov	ROC	1:17:20.8
	Iivo Niskanen	Finland	1:18:10.0
4	Hans Christer Holund	Norway	1:18:40.7
5	Paal Golberg	Norway	1:19:02.3
6	William Poromaa	Sweden	1:19:03.7
7	Perttu Hyvarinen	Finland	1:19:22.4
8	Francesco De Fabiani	Italy	1:19:47.6
9	Artem Maltsev	ROC	1:20:04.6
10	Clement Parisse	France	1:20:07.0
11	Scott Patterson	United States	1:20:10.0
12	Lucas Boegl	Germany	1:20:12.5
13	Friedrich Moch	Germany	1:20:16.4
14	Jules Lapierre	France	1:20:21.8
15	Jonas Baumann	Switzerland	1:20:32.5
16	Mika Vermeulen	Austria	1:20:40.0
17	Andrew Musgrave	Great Britain	1:20:46.9
18	Michal Novak	Czech Republic	1:20:50.9
19	Florian Notz	Germany	1:21:00.4
20	Ireneu Esteve Altimiras	Andorra	1:21:08.2
21	Imanol Rojo	Spain	1:21:09.2
22	Candide Pralong	Switzerland	1:21:13.6
23	Maurice Manificat	France	1:21:17.5
24	Jens Burman	Sweden	1:21:43.3
25	Remi Lindholm	Finland	1:21:49.4
26	Dominik Bury	Poland	1:22:40.6
27	Jason Rueesch	Switzerland	1:22:41.3
28	Paul Constantin Pepene	Romania	1:22:41.4
29	Snorri Eythor Einarsson	Iceland	1:22:50.1
30	Calle Halfvarsson	Sweden	1:22:56.3
31	Olivier Leveille	Canada	1:23:42.0
32	Vitaliy Pukhkalo	Kazakhstan	1:23:45.1
33	Alvar Johannes Alev	Estonia	1:23:50.5
34	Paolo Ventura	Italy	1:24:00.4
35	Naoto Baba	Japan	1:24:43.9
36	Alexey Chervotkin	ROC	1:24:59.5
37	Leo Johansson	Sweden	1:24:59.6
38	Liu Rongsheng	China	1:24:59.6
39	Gus Schumacher	United States	1:25:14.3
40	Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo	Norway	1:25:15.8
41	Ryo Hirose	Japan	1:25:17.7
42	Antoine Cyr	Canada	1:25:26.0
43	Thomas Maloney Westgaard	Ireland	1:25:29.8
44	Petr Knop	Czech Republic	1:25:38.4
45	Jan Koristek	Slovakia	1:25:38.7
46	Adam Fellner	Czech Republic	1:25:39.5
47	Mikayel Mikayelyan	Armenia	1:25:53.7
48	Giandomenico Salvadori	Italy	1:26:10.7
49	Shang Jincai	China	1:26:48.2
50	Badelihan Hadesi	China	LAP
51	Raimo Vigants	Latvia	LAP
52	Mateusz Haratyk	Poland	LAP
53	Thibaut de Marre	Belgium	LAP
54	Haruki Yamashita	Japan	LAP
55	Yevgeniy Velichko	Kazakhstan	LAP
56	Miha Licef	Slovenia	LAP
57	Remi Drolet	Canada	LAP
58	Oleksii Krasovskyi	Ukraine	LAP
59	Chen Degen	China	LAP
60	Kim Min-woo	South Korea	LAP
61	Mark Chanloung	Thailand	LAP
62	Seve de Campo	Australia	LAP
63	Phil Bellingham	Australia	LAP
64	Ruslan Perekhoda	Ukraine	LAP
65	Franco Dal Farra	Argentina	LAP
66	Jeong Jong-won	South Korea	LAP
67	Manex Silva	Brazil	LAP
68	Sjur Roethe	Norway	DNF
69	Hugo Lapalus	France	DNF
70	Jonas Dobler	Germany	DNS