The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics came to a close on Sunday but a Finnish skier competing in one of the last events of the Games endured an unfortunate injury caused by the extreme conditions.
Cross-country skier Remi Lindholm lined up for the men’s 50km mass start at the weekend – a race which had to be delayed and then shortened by 20km due to the freezing conditions at the Zhangjiakou National Cross-Country Skiing Center.
The contest was won by Russian skier Alexander Bolshunov, who bagged his third gold medal of the Beijing Games, while countryman Ivan Yakimushkin earned silver.
Finnish competitor Lindholm finished down in 28th in a time of 1 hour, 15 minutes and 55 seconds, but the biting wind took its toll on a delicate region as Lindholm required a heat pack to be applied to his frozen appendage after the race.
“You can guess which body part was a little bit frozen when I finished... it was one of the worst competitions I’ve been in,” he told Finnish media, Reuters reported. “It was just about battling through.”
It is apparently not the first time Lindholm’s nether regions have suffered a chill during a race, with a similar experience happening in Ruka, Finland, last year.
“When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable,” he added.
The mass start competition saw big-name Norwegian star Johannes Klaebo pull out midway through the race with an apparent stomach bug, as temperatures plunged to around -18C (0F).
That did not deter Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) star Bolshunov as he surged to a third Beijing gold and fifth medal overall at the 2022 Games.
“Overall I can say that when the conditions are harder, this is in my favor because when it is harder, it is easier for me,” said Bolshunov, 25, afterwards.
“In the morning the weather was harder. The wind was stronger and the temperature was colder. When we started the race, the weather got a bit better and I think today we could have skied 50 kilometers.”
Lindholm will perhaps be more relieved simply to have emerged with all his body parts in working order.