Cross-country skiing at the 1998 Winter Olympics – Men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay explained

Event:Men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay
Games:1998 Winter
Venue:Snow Harp
Dates:18 February
Competitors:80
Nations:20
Win Value:1:40:55.7
Gold:Sture Sivertsen
Erling Jevne
Bjørn Dæhlie
Thomas Alsgaard
Goldnoc:NOR
Silver:Marco Albarello
Fulvio Valbusa
Fabio Maj
Silvio Fauner
Silvernoc:ITA
Bronze:Harri Kirvesniemi
Mika Myllylä
Sami Repo
Jari Isometsä
Bronzenoc:FIN
Prev:1994
Next:2002

The men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was held on 18 February at Snow Harp.

Race summary

The opening leg in Nagano was a surprise with Germany leading, and Norway in 10th place, as Sture Sivertsen hit the wall at eight kilometers.[1] After the 1st exchange Finland was third and Italy fourth, but the margin was less than 20 seconds to Finland. On the second leg Erling Jevne pulled Norway up to second, still trailing Italy and Fulvio Valbusa by 12 seconds. Norway sent out Bjørn Dæhlie on the third leg, and he made up ground on Fabio Maj. At the final exchange, Italy led by 0.5 seconds, with Finland in third, though a full minute behind.[2]

As in Lillehammer the anchor leg battle between Norway and Italy was tight. Thomas Alsgaard was the Norwegian anchor, facing Italy's Silvio Fauner. As the Italians had done four years before, Alsgaard sat on Fauner's tail for most of the leg, refusing to take the lead. Then in the stadium he unleashed a sprint 150 metres from the line, to win the gold medal for his team by 2/10ths of a second. For Bjørn Dæhlie this was his seventh gold medal, a Winter Olympic record at the time.

Finland hung on for the bronze medal, but they were closely challenged by Sweden, which was less than 10 seconds away from the podium.

Results

Each team used four skiers, with each completing racing over the same 10 kilometre circuit. The first two raced in the classical style, and the final pair of skiers raced freestyle.[3]

Rank Bib Team Time Deficit
1
Sture Sivertsen
Erling Jevne
Bjørn Dæhlie
Thomas Alsgaard
1:40:55.7
26:20.0
25:18.9
24:42.3
24:34.5
3
Marco Albarello
Fulvio Valbusa
Fabio Maj
Silvio Fauner
1:40:55.9
26:04.1
25:22.2
24:54.4
24:35.2
+0.2
2
Harri Kirvesniemi
Mika Myllylä
Sami Repo
Jari Isometsä
1:42:15.5
26:01.7
25:47.5
25:31.0
24:55.3
+1:19.8
5
Mathias Fredriksson
Niklas Jonsson
Per Elofsson
Henrik Forsberg
1:42:25.2
26:33.7
26:07.9
25:25.2
24:18.4
+1:29.5
4
Vladimir Legotine
Alexey Prokourorov
Sergey Kriyanin
Sergey Tchepikov
1:42:39.5
26:19.0
25:21.2
26:02.4
24:56.9
+1:43.8
20
Jeremias Wigger
Beat Koch
Reto Burgermeister
Wilhelm Aschwanden
1:42:49.2
26:20.8
26:12.0
25:31.8
24:44.6
+1:53.5
14
Katsuhito Ebisawa
Hiroyuki Imai
Mitsuo Horigome
Kazutoshi Nagahama
1:43:06.7
26:11.0
26:13.9
25:15.2
25:26.6
+2:11.0
6
Andreas Schlütter
Jochen Behle
René Sommerfeldt
Johann Mühlegg
1:43:16.1
25:57.4
26:48.8
26:01.0
24:28.9
+2:20.4
13
Markus Gandler
Alois Stadlober
Achim Walcher
Christian Hoffmann
1:43:16.5
26:00.9
26:28.5
25:47.5
24:59.6
+2:20.8
10 11
Andrus Veerpalu
Raul Olle
Elmo Kassin
Jaak Mae
1:44:20.9
26:50.0
26:14.3
26:11.1
25:05.5
+3:25.2
11 9
Ivan Batory
Martin Bajcicak
Andrey Párička
Stanislav Ježík
1:44:31.6
26:13.4
26:19.1
26:28.5
25:30.6
+3:35.9
12 16
Gennadiy Nikon
Alexander Zarovnyi
Mikhailo Artyukhov
Nikolay Popovich
1:44:33.9
26:40.5
26:30.9
26:04.3
25:18.2
+3:38.2
13 17
Vincent Vittoz
Patrick Remy
Herve Balland
Philippe Sanchez
1:45:00.2
26:36.4
26:28.5
26:11.3
25:44.0
+4:04.5
14 7
Sergei Dolidovich
Aleksey Tregubov
Alexander Sannikov
Viatscheslav Plaksunov
1:45:15.3
26:14.1
27:18.4
26:16.8
25:26.0
+4:19.6
15 8
Lukáš Bauer
Martin Koukal
Petr Michl
Jiří Magál
1:45:35.4
26:17.6
27:02.6
26:12.2
26:03.0
+4:39.7
16 12
Pavel Riabinine
Vladimir Bortsov
Andrey Nevzorov
Vitaly Lilitchenko
1:46:12.9
26:21.1
27:16.0
25:43.9
26:51.9
+5:17.2
17 15
Marcus Nash
John Bauer
Patrick Weaver
Justin Wadsworth
1:48:16.4
27:19.7
27:53.2
27:07.9
25:55.6
+7:20.7
18 10
Donald Farley
Robin McKeever
Chris Blanchard
Guido Visser
1:49:27.4
28:15.6
28:00.3
26:20.3
26:51.2
+8:31.7
19 18
Jordi Ribó
Diego Ruiz
Juan Jesús Gutiérrez
Álvaro Gijón
1:49:27.9
27:51.4
28:26.0
26:18.0
26:52.5
+8:32.2
20 19
Park Byung-chul
Ahn Jin-soo
Shin Doo-sun
Park Byung-joo
1:55:17.1
29:05.0
29:53.9
28:15.2
28:03.0
+14:21.4

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Trodde OL-gullet forsvant . Inherred . Norwegian . 5 February 2018.
  2. Web site: Cross Country Skiing at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's 4 x 10 kilometres Relay . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417181856/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/winter/1998/CCS/mens-4-x-10-kilometres-relay.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . Sports Reference . 7 July 2019.
  3. Web site: The XVIII Olympic Winter Games Official Report. 62–64. library.la84.org. 10 February 2018.