Winter Olympics 2022 - Therese Johaug overcomes wild weather to emerge with gold in brutal women's 30km mass start

Norway’s Therese Johaug won gold in the 30 kilometre mass start to secure a hat-trick of titles at Beijing 2022 and close her Olympic career with victory. Johaug had won the 10km classical and 15km skiathlon events earlier in the Games, and survived a ferocious wind to prevail after nearly an hour and a half of tough racing.

Ad/> The 30-year-old beat American competition in Jessie Diggins, who became the first non-European medallist in the event's history, whilst Sweden’s Jonna Sundling was victorious in the battle for bronze. /> Beijing 2022Team GB — James Clugnet & Andrew Musgrave look back on Beijing 202215 HOURS AGO Weather conditions proved to be brutal at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Centre, and strong winds clearly had an effect on the opening 1.3km as skiers were significantly slower than usual.

After 2.9km there was a breakaway pack of four riders led by Johaug, closely followed by Sweden’s Ebba Andersson, Diggins and Claudel Delphine representing France. As the riders approached the 10.4km mark Johaug and Diggins started to pull even further ahead, with Diggins six seconds off the pace and Andersson 16.8s behind the American in the silver medal position.

Claudel had dropped a further 32.2s off the leader after rubbing shoulders with the Norwegian just a few kilometers before, and her medal hopes started to fade as the chasing pack caught up with her. Bolshunov wins third gold in Beijing with victory in shortened 50km race ‘What a f*****g joke!’ — Musgrave vents frustration after 50km mass start change At the halfway stage, Johaug was the strong favourite for the gold medal as she increased her lead to 27 seconds.