Why Scottish skiing ace Andrew Musgrave was left mystified after competing at Winter Olympic Games

Cross-country skier Andrew Musgrave was more mystified than at any time in his 13-year career by the way he slowed to ‘crawling’ pace in the Olympic 15km in Beijing.

The Scot was inside the top 20 through the first 3.5km but struggled badly on the second circuit of the course and finished 46th in a time of 41 minutes 44.7 seconds.

It left Musgrave searching for answers and for the first time, failing to find them.

“To be honest, I'm super disappointed and I can't really understand what went on,” said the 31-year-old.

“In the build-up to the Olympics everything has gone to plan. I haven't had any issues but this was just so far off what I expect and I don't understand.

“It feels a wee bit different. In previous times if I've not raced so fast, there's always been a bit of an explanation. I haven’t got a clue what’s gone wrong.

“Classic has always been my weaker discipline and freestyle should be better. But at the same time, I've got to have a better feeling than that.”

Musgrave covered the first 3km in a sprightly 8 minutes 36.6 seconds but faded, believing he got the balance of his effort wrong.

“At this altitude, you've got to go out and feel like you've got a bit of gas left in the tank for the second lap,” he said.

“I felt like the first lap was alright, not too bad, but going out on the second lap when you've got to try and increase the speed, I just felt dead and didn't manage to increase the pace at all. Instead of doing that, I started crawling!”

It was also a tough day at the office Andrew Young who like his long-standing team-mate favoured neither the distance nor the technique.

Young began his Olympic campaign in Tuesday’s sprint and having recently recovered from a bout of Covid, found the tight turnaround