10/15 kilometres Pursuit, Men

The script was the same as in all other cross-country events in 1994 and 1998. Bjørn Dæhlie was entered. Bjørn Dæhlie was favored. He was the two-time defending champion, had won the 1997 World Championship in pursuit, he had won the 10 km classical, so he would start in the lead, and he was better at freestyle than classical. Need any more convincing?

Dæhlie went off with an 8-second lead over Markus Gandler, who was not considered a challenger, but it was 16 seconds back to Finland’s Mika Myllylä, who had been third in the 10 km, and 21 seconds to Vladimir Smirnov, perhaps the best skier in the past five years not named Bjørn Dæhlie. And then a miracle occurred – Dæhlie was beaten. He actually skied rather poorly, for him, in the freestyle pursuit phase, posting only the seventh fastest time. But none of the above caught him, instead it was his teammate Thomas Alsgaard, who started fifth, 24 seconds in arrears. Alsgaard caught up to Dæhlie by eight kilometers, and then sat in behind him for 20 minutes to conserve his strength. Dæhlie tried to pull away but that didn’t work. He tried to slow down and get Alsgaard to take the lead, but that didn’t work. What worked was Alsgaard’s sprint, started at 200 metres out, which pulled him ahead with 50 metres to the line, and brought him ahead by 1.1 seconds. Smirnov also struggled in freestyle, posting only the 11th best time, but his overall race brought him with a bronze medal.