Maiden Olympic Gold for Therese Johaug

The very first title event of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games belonged to the Cross-Country skiers. With the Womens Skiathlon, a spectacular start onto the worlds largest sporting stage was guaranteed.

For Therese Johaug, it was the perfect start into the Olympic Winter Games. The 33 year-old Norwegian has been dominating the Distance competitions in Cross-Country skiing in the past years and has won every possible title along the way – except Olympic Gold.

With an outstanding persistence, Therese Johaug paced the way for the 65 athletes right from the start.

But it was not only Therese Johaug who paced all out throughout the four laps of 3.75km. Natalia Nepryaeva (ROC) and Terese Stadlober (AUT) remained on her heels as long as possible along with Kerttu Niskanen (FIN) and Frida Karlsson (SWE), who was handled as top challenger to Johaug.

Suitable for the worlds largest sporting stage, the course setting and conditions was tough. On the final stretch, Johaug had advanced to a 30 second margin before Nepryaeva and Stadlober sprinted along the final stretch to ensure the silver and bronze medal.

For Teresa Stadlober, who did not have a long acclimatization time, the podium came unexpected: “After being on site only for three days, I did not have a lot of time to get adjusted to the altitude and the course. I still fight my jetlag but my body was ready. I felt great today but I can’t believe that I managed to win an Olympic medal yet.”

All results of the Olympic Winter Games can be found here.