On February 19, Beijing time, the cross-country skiing competition of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics continued, and the Russian-Austrian team's Bolisshunov won the men's 30 km collective departure (free technology) championship, the Chinese team all four finished, and Chen Degen won the 41st place with the best result.
The men's 50 km collective start (free technology) is arguably the toughest event at the Winter Olympics, and it's also a "marathon" on the snow. According to the arrangement of the Winter Olympics, the 50-kilometer collective departure traditional technology and free technology competitions are held in turn, the Beijing Winter Olympics happen to be free technology, and the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics four years ago were traditional technology. The gold medalist for the men's 50 km collective departure (traditional technique) at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was Finland's Niskanen, and the silver and bronze medals were won by the Russian Olympic team.
At the Beijing Winter Olympics, Niskanen chose to give up participating in the 50-kilometer group race, which made it very likely that the gold medal in the competition would be produced between Norwegian and Russian Olympic players. This season's cross-country skiing World Cup's 50km group start race was almost dominated by athletes from both countries, with 20 of the 24 medals taken by these two countries, and Niskanin taking the other three, meaning that only one medal was dropped, which is enough to show the outstanding strength of Norway and The Russian-Austrian teams in the event. Norway's Klebo is at the top of the world cup in total points, while in the long distance event, The Russian Olympic team's Bolisshunov is in the first place.
The Chinese team sent four people to compete in the project, namely Chen Degen, Wang Qiang, Liu Rongsheng and Badri Khan, whose goal is to achieve better results. Wang Qiang competed in the event (traditional technology) at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, where he finished 59th. The Best place for the Chinese team in the Men's 50km Collective Departure (Free Technique) at the Winter Olympics was 29th, which was won by Qu Donghai at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.
Due to the weather at the National Cross-Country SkiIng Center, the race was postponed for 1 hour, while shortening the distance from 50 km to 30 km. After the start of the race, the three Norwegian players rushed to the front to lead the skate, and Holonde, Krügel and Klebo ranked in the top three, but the distance between the players was not fully widened, and there were about 40 players in the leading group. At the end of the 7.1 km, Kruger finished first, with a time of 18 minutes and 43 seconds. Chen Degen is in 42nd place and Badri Khan is in 46th place.
As the race progressed, The Russian-Austrian Team's Bolisshunov began to pick up speed, he rose to the leading position, and at the end of the 14.2 km he finished in 36:16.8. Kruger and others still followed the leading group, but Klebo had been slowly thrown away, and he gradually withdrew from the championship group, which was not good at long distances. The tournament then became a five-player tie, with the leading group including three Russian and Austrian players and two Norwegian players.
After the 27.2km time point, Bolisshunov began to sprint, he shrugged off the others to take the lead alone, and Yakimishkin also surpassed Kruger in second place, and Kruger fell to third. There was no change in the top three of the final sprint, with Bolisshunov winning the title in 1 hour 11 minutes 32 seconds 7, Yaki mashkin second in 1 hour 11 minutes 38 seconds 2, and Kruger finishing third in 1 hour 11 minutes 39 seconds 7.
The best performer for the Chinese team was Chen Degen, who finished 41st in 1 hour, 18 minutes, 14 seconds, Badri Khan 45th in 1 hour 19 minutes 45 seconds, Wang Qiang 46th in 1 hour 19 minutes 53 seconds, and Liu Rongsheng 48th in 1 hour 19 minutes 58 seconds.