The 29-year-old finished 11th in Zhangjiakou over 30 km skating with a mass start, her gap to the sovereign winner Therese Johaug was 3:42.5 minutes. For the Norwegian it was her third gold medal in her announced last Olympic race these games. She won ahead of Jessie Diggins (USA) and Kerttu Niskanen (FIN).
On the first day, Stadlober provided the first medal for the ÖOC team in China with bronze in the skiathlon, but this time the podium places were out of reach for them. “My muscles didn’t allow me to run for a medal,” said the Radstadt native after the extremely tough race. “Brutal, that wasn’t normal anymore,” she said of the conditions. “It was such a wind and so slow.”
Frozen toes and fingers
The cold and biting wind added to the strain on the difficult route. “My toes and fingers are frozen off.” During the race she didn’t have to struggle with the stomach problems her father mentioned, although she had more muscular problems. “I didn’t recover that well from the team sprint. It cost me a lot of strength, I didn’t scoot anymore.”
She had finished the competition four days before with Lisa Unterweger with an excellent sixth place, but developed a sore muscle after an active semi-final and final. “Physically, I wasn’t able to. Eleventh place isn’t so bad for that anyway. I wanted to finish the race, I did it. I’m satisfied.” The competition had been brought forward by three and a half hours the day before because of the conditions.
“Only” minus 13.3 degrees
At the start time at 11.00 a.m. local time it was “only” minus 13.3 degrees, but the wind made it feel a lot colder. After about 1.5 km, Stadlober lost contact with the absolute leaders led by Johaug when she was drinking at a refreshment station. “That was a bit stupid in hindsight. But I don’t think I would have managed to keep up with my condition today. It was difficult.”
Stadlober soon ran in a slightly larger third group, which caught up with the second group in the middle of the race. Johaug was already solo, followed by Diggins at some distance and Ebba Andersson again at a respectful distance. From then on, the Swede was running for her first Olympic individual medal, but was intercepted shortly before the finish line and ended up eighth. Diggins ended up 1:43.3 behind Johaug, Niskanen 2:33.3.
At the end, Stadlober was in the throng of pursuers Andersson, and she broke off at around 25 kilometers. Andersson kept an eye on the best red-white-red cross-country skier for the longest time, but not bronze: “I felt that it wouldn’t be the medal today. But for me it was great games with the medal at the beginning. If I If anyone had said that before, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. I’m super happy with how it went.”
Roswitha Stadlober was happy for her. “She rounded it off perfectly. She wasn’t quite in the physical condition today to maybe have been able to fight for bronze. But nonetheless, they were successful games for her, especially with that historic medal she so wished for,” she probably said more as a mother than as ÖSV President. Teresa Stadlober will continue next weekend at the Lahti World Cup.
Source: Nachrichten
