Alexander Bolshunov won his third cross-country skiing gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics after having the strongest finish in the men's shortened 50km race. The cold and windy conditions forced organizers to shorten the blue-riband event to less than 30km, a decision that on paper gave Bolshunov's rivals a better chance of keeping up with the Russian until the finish. Ad/> But Bolshunov still managed to dictate the race, upping the pace over the last 10km to pull the pack apart, with only four other skiers managing to keep up.