The main and pleasant news of this Saturday is two medals, which were won by Russian skiers in the mass start at a distance of 30 kilometers. Alexander Bolshunov just a good fellow!
Now he is definitely the king of skis. Although, even to this day, hardly anyone doubted it. In the race, which did not turn out to be a full-fledged marathon, but still remained the most difficult at the Games, there were no showdowns at the finish line and lags along the way. Strictly according to the classics: Bolshunov came and won.
The main start of the ski Olympic program was in jeopardy. A couple of hours before the start, a storm warning is announced in Zhangjiakou. But for the transfer, there was only an option from Sunday morning, where the women’s race is already listed. The organizers decided not to take risks and found a non-trivial way out: the classic 50 kilometers became thirty.
Together with Alexander, Ivan Yakimushkin, Artem Maltsev and Denis Spitsov went to such a half marathon. The main rivals here are traditionally the Norwegians and their team tactics. This time without world champion Iversen. But Rete, Holund and Kruger are already a sufficient support group for Johannes Kläbo. The same one that prevented Alexander from winning everything at the same world championship in the finish line. By the way, it was the Norwegian, according to media reports, who refused to run 50 kilometers in the cold. 30 agreed. But by the middle of the distance, he still began to lag behind. And then he gave up altogether.
Holunn is next. Our almost to the very end are in the lead in full force. By the final kilometer, Bolshunov’s pace is kept only by Yakimushkin and Kruger. Retain, but no more. Alexander even before the finish line manages to victoriously raise his fist and cross the line. With a break.
Bolshunov now has another record: he is the first skier in history to win five awards in one Olympics. Golden shoes at the flower ceremony are just right and out of place.
“I want to say thank you to our great team, to all the coaches who led and prompted along the track, also to my coach Yuri Viktorovich. To my beloved wife Anna. I think I will dedicate this medal to her,” admitted Bolshunov.
“The medal will say: 50 km. So Sasha became the third king of skiing. Two were in the Soviet Union, he is the first in our new Russia,” said Elena Vyalbe, president of the Russian Ski Racing Federation.
Together with five medals, Alexander will also carry the flag – this is how the ROC team decided today.
Our team this morning repeated its historical record of 29 medals in one Games. Athletes have already performed even more successfully than in Sochi. The president of the federation, which brought us the most of these awards in Beijing, repeated the famous dance of Yulia Stupak.
And Norway today got only bronze. Silver – the first Olympic medal in his career – went to Ivan Yakimushkin. “The body recovers a little longer than on the plain. And I am very glad that I jumped, one might say, into the outgoing train of the Olympics and still took my little medal,” admitted sportsman.
The skaters competed for the last medals of the XXIV Olympiad in such a tight fight, which, perhaps, has never happened before. The first two duets before the free program shared sixteen hundredths of a point.
Again, all our participants start in the last – the strongest – warm-up of the day. Who dominates in world figure skating, the Russians have already shown. But this time, you will have to fight for gold with a couple who not only broke two world records here, but will also perform with the support of the entire stadium, because at these Games, due to covid, only local fans. The Chinese couple Sui and Han are the only ones who claim a quadruple twist. To compete with this, you had to skate absolutely flawlessly. Mishina and Gallyamov were the first of the three to try.
This is already the fourth performance in Beijing for the current world champions – they have also passed the team tournament. Fatigue – although they hide – of course, has accumulated. But they didn’t break a single element. And they took another medal at the debut Olympics.
“We are very pleased that we managed to show clean skates in both short and free programs,” the skaters said.
From the stands, our leaders were motivated to fight for the highest award by the already existing medalists – Victoria Sinitsina and Alexander Trusova more than once got into the frame. Tarasova and Morozov finished the previous Olympics a step away from medals. This time both parts of the program skated to their best result of the season. They gave everything. After the final, they could not hold back the tears.
“The whole season, all four years, everything was aimed at today’s rental. And you can’t just tell, you won’t convey these emotions. Today we are just very happy. When it happened today, all these emotions just flooded that everything was not in vain, that we today we fought with dignity. It’s just a surge of joy that we succeeded today,” the skaters are happy. The guys received such a long-awaited Olympic award right on the ice.
Tomorrow, our couples should still go to demonstration performances. The secret of what they will be was slightly revealed by the skaters themselves in social networks. Shcherbakova, for example, will appear with white wings under Ave Maria. Trusova has a Wonder Woman number. Alexandra, together with Shoma Uno, also performed a cantilever duet today.
The Olympiad ends tomorrow, but, as we see, the most interesting thing is the finale. And you can follow this not only on the TV channel “Russia 1”, but also on the online platform “Looking”.