Milestones bring final flourish as Winter Olympics close

ZHANGJIAKOU • Therese Johaug brushed off the high winds at the National Cross-Country Skiing Centre to breeze to victory in the women's 30km mass start free and claim her third individual gold of the Beijing Games, which she said would be her final Olympics.

Johaug, 33, led one third into the race and never looked back as the high winds, which caused the event to be moved back several hours, buffeted the course.

"I was born in a small place that gets a lot of wind and a lot of cold temperature in the region, so this was nothing for me," she said.

Johaug, who was born in Os, a small town with a population of less than 2,000 people, waited at the finish line to congratulate Chinese athletes including Dinigeer Yilamujiang, who was the last to finish. "I was so proud of the Chinese girls, they are training and working so hard for these Olympics, they have been in Norway a lot and training there," she said.

"Five or six years ago, they didn't know what cross-country is, I'm so proud that they are here today and that she finished the race."

Cross-country skiing is a gruelling sport and adverse weather conditions on Saturday made it all the more challenging, hence the men's 50km mass start race was shortened to 30km but that did little to help Remi Lindholm, who needed a heat pack at the end of the race to thaw his frozen penis.

"It was one of the worst competitions I've been in... When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable," Lindholm told Finnish media.

It was a less painful experience in Beijing on her Olympic swansong for Johaug, who was ruled out of the 2018 Games after failing a doping test for a substance in a lip balm. She said: "I have not decided what I will do next year, I will decide now after the season. It is important that the sport is popular and that we can bring up some new girls in the future."

Like Johaug, Francesco Friedrich also had a Games to remember, making history with a second consecutive bobsleigh double as Germany signed off in Beijing with nine of the 10 sliding golds.

Friedrich, 31, became the first pilot to win back-to-back Olympic golds in two-man and four-man bobsleigh as he repeated his double from Pyeongchang. He is targeting a treble in Italy in 2026.

In curling, Eve Muirhead could not hold back the tears as she stood on top of the podium after leading Britain to a 10-3 victory over Japan in the women's final yesterday, securing the nation's only gold in China. The 31-year-old, who won Olympic gold at the fourth time of asking alongside debutantes Jennifer Dodds, Hailey Duff and Vicky Wright, said it was an "incredible" moment.

Finland's men's ice hockey team claimed the final gold of the Games and their first in the sport after beating the defending champions Russian Olympic Committee 2-1.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE