Sweden won both the women's and men's relays at the Olympics for the first time since 1972 and the men defended their 2010 title with a miraculous first leg from Lars Nelson and dominant performances from Daniel Richardsson, Johan Olsson, and Marcus Hellner, respectively.
With a rocket-fast last lap and some unplanned help from Canada's Alex Harvey, Alexander Legkov made Saturday a little less about Dario Cologna, who returned to the World Cup after missing the first half of the season. Legkov won the last distance race before the Olympics, bringing Russia some good vibes before it hosts the Games.
Lukas Bauer's (CZE) masterfully paced race ousted Eldar Roenning (NOR) from the victors chair today in Kuusamo, Finland, allowing the veteran Czech to claim his first victory since 2010. Bauer's pace in the 10 k classic race saw his split times trailing throughout the first 8 k to both Roenning and Dmitriy Japarov (RUS), before accelerating in the final kilometers to best grab the victory time by 2.4 seconds.
Has a team sprint ever been won by a difference of 18 seconds? If so, Dmitriy Japarov and Maxim Vylegzhanin erased all memory of it on Sunday in taking the Sochi team sprint win by exactly that much. The field was stunned — Sweden took second and Germany was third.