Fuming Musgrave rues ‘ridiculous’ decision as medal hopes dashed

Andrew Musgrave was left cursing the weather and officials after his best Olympic chance was dealt a cruel blow.

The four-time Olympian was targeting the gruelling 50km crosscountry race as his key event in Beijing, believing he was in the shape to put a challenge to the dominant Nordic nations.

But he was left fuming after being told the windy conditions and frigid temperate – it was -17 celsius and even colder with wind chill – meant the showpiece race would be shortened to just 30km.

“I thought it was a ridiculous decision,” he said. “If it’s warm enough to race then I don’t see why doing an hour and a quarter or 30km, compared to two hours in the 50km, makes it any better.

“It’s still the same temperature, it’s still the same wind, so I thought it was an absolutely stupid call.

“While you’re racing you keep warm and it’s not too bad. You’re going so hard that it’s easy to keep warm. Standing talking to you after the race, on the other hand, is pretty chilly.

“I haven’t got a clue why they did it. To be honest, I don’t know what they were thinking. Seems a little bit strange to me.”

Musgrave still finished 12th, despite the shortened race, his second-best individual performance as Russia’s Alexander Bolshunov took gold nearly two minutes ahead.

“I’m pretty disappointed,” added Musgrave, who finished fourth in the 50km event at the World

Championships in Finland five years ago.

“It wasn’t what I came here to do and wasn’t exactly what I’d been hoping for.”

Musgrave finished seventh in the skiathlon in Pyeongchang before an untimely virus derailed his hopes in subsequent events where he thought he’d be more competitive.

However, at 31 whether he’ll continue to Milano Cortina in four years remains to be seen. All three medallists here were in their mid-20s.

“I still really enjoy skiing and I think I can improve as a skier,” he said. “I feel like I can be a lot better than I’ve been in these Games. So I’d like to keep going, but we’ll see what happens.”

• British Olympic Association chief executive Andy Anson acknowledged that there will need to be tough discussions and decisions ahead for those sports and athletes who failed to hit their respective medal targets in Beijing.

Two curling medals on the final two days of competition put some gloss on an otherwise disappointing Winter Games for Great Britain, with a number of strong medal chances falling by the wayside.

Chief among those to disappoint was skeleton, whose four athletes fell well short of medal contention despite £6.5 million of funding during the Olympic cycle just expired.

“We don’t want to hide away from the fact that there will be sports and athletes going home who will be disappointed with the way things have gone out here,” said Anson.

“I don’t think we can pretend that’s not the case.”

Andrew Musgrave rallied despite the changes to record his joint second-highest result at a Games.