30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men

As in 2006, this event was no longer truly a pursuit. The competitors skied 15 km using the classical technique, followed by a pit stop to change to shorter skis, and then skied 15 km freestyle. The 2009 World Champion was Petter Northug of Norway, who was leading the World Cup in 2009-10 and would star in Vancouver with four medals and two golds, but he had wax problems in this race, would break a pole, and finished only 11th. The leader at the pit stop was Lukáš Bauer of the Czech Republic, somewhat of a classical specialist, with Switzerland’s Dario Cologna, already the winner of the 15 km in Vancouver, in second, and Sweden’s Johan Olsson in third. In the freestyle, Olsson quickly moved into the lead, but he was gradually caught and passed on the final hill by his teammate Marcus Hellner, and then by Tobias Angerer (GER) on the run in to the home straight. Hellner held a comfortable lead as he entered the finishing straight and finished in a time of 1-15:11.4 to win the gold medal, 2.1 seconds ahead of Angerer. Olsson held on to take the bronze medal, defeating a fast finishing Aleksandr Legkov (RUS) by 1.2 seconds.