It is the queen event of cross-country skiing, the equivalent of the marathon in athletics for its prestige: the 50 km of the Olympic Games-2022 must above all make it possible to decide between the two stars of the discipline, the Russian Alexander Bolshunov and the Norwegian Johannes Klaebo .

They have both won four medals and are inseparable even in the distribution of the color of their awards with two in gold, one in silver and one in bronze.

Before tackling the 50 km (2:00 p.m. local, 7:00 a.m. French), Bolshunov has for him to have flown over the skiathlon and the relay, while Klaebo ruled the sprint, individual and team events.

But this penultimate cross-country ski race on the program, before the women's 30 km which will close the 2022 Olympic Games on Sunday, could hold many surprises, because it will be contested in difficult conditions with very low temperatures and snow. particularly trying.

Maurice Manificat, member of the 4x10 km relay bronze medalist in Zhangjiakou, will be the strongest argument on the French side.

Triumphant welcome

To equal the record for medals in an edition of the Winter Olympics (15), it will probably be necessary to wait until Sunday with the team event where Tessa Worley and Alexis Pinturault, who remained without a medal, hope to save their Games.

Provided that the event takes place: it was scheduled for Saturday and was postponed to Sunday morning due to a strong wind, but the forecast for Sunday is not better.

Could it be purely and simply canceled, which is extremely rare in Olympic history?

Response on Saturday.

Kevin Rolland finished in 6th place in half-pipe skiing, far from New Zealander Nico Porteous, reigning world champion in the specialty and now Olympic champion, ahead of Americans David Wise and Alex Ferreira.

But for the standard-bearer of the French delegation during the opening ceremony, the bet had already been won since he had qualified for the final, three years after a terrible fall which almost cost him his life.

Kevin Rolland during the half-pipe ski final of the Beijing Olympics, finished in 6th place, in Zhangjiakou, February 19, 2022 Marco BERTORELLO AFP

To end this penultimate day, the Chinese Sui Wenjing and Han Cong, silver medalists four years ago, will try on the Olympic ice to resist the Russians Evgenia Tarasova and Vladimir Morozov, to offer the host country probably its last medal.

6,000 km from Beijing, Kamila Valieva was welcomed in Moscow by hundreds of excited supporters after the 2022 Olympics that she is not about to forget.

The Russian prodigy, at the heart of a resounding doping affair, even smiled behind her mask when she heard the songs of her supporters.

Milan/Cortina in 2026

"We couldn't not be there to welcome her, she showed so much dignity in the face of everything she went through, she had to feel that the whole country was behind her," explained to AFP Ksenia, one of his fans.

Valieva, 15, did not win the individual title that seemed promised to her, after cracking in the free program, but she continues to dominate the news, two months after a positive doping test revealed in the middle of the Games.

The president of the International Olympic Committee Thomas Bach pointed the finger on Friday at his entourage while the International Skating Federation will submit to the vote of its members in June a measure raising the minimum age to 17 years to participate in senior competitions.

Russian skater Kamila Valieva (g) greeted with fervor upon her return from China, at a Moscow airport, February 18, 2022 Alexander NEMENOV AFP

If it will be necessary to wait several months for the anti-doping authorities to complete their investigation into the Valieva affair, it will undoubtedly be a distant memory when the Olympic flame is rekindled on July 26, 2024 in Paris.

The Olympics will return to Western Europe with the winter Olympics in Milan/Cortina in 2026, after a long and difficult journey, from Sochi to Beijing via Rio, Pyeongchang and Tokyo.

© 2022 AFP