30 kilometres, Men

Soviet’s Vyacheslav Vedenin – who won Olympic silver in the 50 km event in 1968 – had a great World Championships in 1970, winning the 30 km race, placing second in the 50 km race and also becoming World Champion as a member of the winning Soviet relay team. He was one of the hottest favorites for the 30 km Olympic gold in Sapporo, but started rather slowly and was lying in seventh place after 10 km, almost half a minute behind the leader, his teammate Fyodor Simashov, who was the bronze medalist at 15 km at the 1970 World Championships. In second place, four seconds behind Simashev, was another Soviet skier, Vladimir Dolganov, followed by the Norwegian Johs Harviken, another four seconds behind. But now Vedenin started his move. At 20 km he was in the lead, 11 seconds ahead of the Norwegian Pål Tyldum, who had advanced from sixth to second position. Gunnar Larsson from Sweden had moved from fifth to third, and Harviken was close behind, still among the medal contenders. Dolganov had dropped to sixth and Simashev to seventh, seemingly out of the medal struggle. Vedenin finished strongly and won the first ever Olympic cross-country gold for a Soviet man with a margin of over 54 seconds. The fight for the other medals was very tight between the two Norwegians and Larsson. Harviken, starting half a minute behind his Swedish rival, had a strong finish and beat Larsson’s final time by just over one second. Tyldum, starting last of all the competitors, was able to stay ahead of his countryman and won the silver medal, defeating Harviken by seven seconds. The West German veteran Walter Demel, starting in his third Winter Olympics, finished strongly to finish in fifth place.