Bakom Niskanen åkte landsmannen Remi Lindholm in på 25:e plats i sin OS-debut. Lindholm hade speciella planer efter loppet i skidorten Zhangjiakou.
– Jag har inte vågat fråga honom om autografen ännu men kanske vågar jag ta mod till mig och fråga om autografen innan spelen tar slut, säger 24-årige Lindholm till Reuters om omåttligt populäre Niskanen, 30, en finländsk nationalidol.
Lindholm has been in Beijing for a couple of months to help his father, who is a trainer for Chinese skiers.
The Finn has mostly trained on a roller ski track.
Niskanen, who won five-mile gold in Pyeongchang 2018, took Finland's first medal in Beijing.
- I knew I had the chance.
With hard work and high speed from the start, I was able to maximize my own capacity and endurance, Niskanen said in the TV interview after the race, according to Hufvudstadsbladet.
"The Russians were insanely strong"
He salvaged the medal and was impressed by the Russian double with Alexander Bolshunov and Denis Spitsov.
- The Russians were insanely strong today.
I just could not handle their speed, it was completely crazy.
It was even a bit of a surprise to me that I did not keep up at all, says Niskanen who had the strong freestyle skier Hans Christer Holund (had two months with only training before the Olympics) who chased 40s seconds behind in the highway-wide track.
- I could still keep everything under control.
During the last lap I was also able to enjoy a bit, as the distance to Holund was stable, says Niskanen who has the favorite distance 15 km classic left in the Olympics, the branch he has two victories in this season's World Cup.
– Jag höll på att svimma efter fyra varv (skidbytet) och var helt stum. Jag fick inte ner någon luft och det gjorde att jag inte var mig själv på skejten och hade inget att komma med, säger Holund som var 38 sekunder efter Niskanen halvvägs till NRK. I mål var det en halv minut.