Cross Country Skiing at the 1976 Innsbruck Winter Games:

Since the 1972 Games an equipment revolution had taken place in cross-country skiing. During the 1973-74 season the old wooden skis had been replaced by the new fiberglass ski. Also, a new generation of skiers had taken over, and the Soviet Union had emerged as the leading cross-country nation, not only among the women but also in the men’s events. Also other East European countries had developed top cross-country skiers, notably East Germany, Poland and Czechoslovakia had won medals at the 1974 World Championships.

As usual, the 30 km race for men was the opening cross-country event. At 10 km, Norwegian [Ivar Formo] was in the lead, two seconds ahead of the 22-year old Soviet newcomer, [Nikolay Bazhukov]. At the next intermediate time, 20 km, the Soviet skiers had taken over the race. Bazhukov was in the lead, eight seconds ahead of his teammate [Sergey Savelyev], with [Ivan Garanin], another Soviet skier, in third place, 17 seconds behind the leader. The biggest surprise come from a young American, 20-year old [Bill Koch], who had moved up to fourth place, two seconds ahead of Formo, who had dropped from first to fifth. [Juha Mieto], the big Finn who had won silver at the distance at the 1974 World Championships, was also advancing in the field, moving up to sixth place. Mieto, wearing start #2, was the first of the favorites to reach the finish, skiing strongly over the last 10 km. Koch, the surprising American, was next. He had had a nine second lead over Mieto after 20 km, and he took over the first position, bettering Mieto’s time by 22 seconds. When Garanin, next of the top contenders to finish, was not able to better Koch’s time, the chances for a sensational cross-country medal for the USA began to seem possible. But Savelyev, lying second after 20 km, had the strongest finish of all and took over the lead, 28 seconds ahead of Koch. None of the late starting favorites could match the finishing times of Savelyev and Koch. Formo faded badly and ended in 11th place. Bazhyukov, the leader at 20 km, could not keep the pace over the last 10 km and finished behind Mieto in fifth place.

The new Olympic Champion Savelyev was relatively unmerited on the international circuit, his best placing was fifth at the 1975 Holmenkollen over 50 km. He was born in the Amur region in the Far East, and started serious training at the age of 19 when he was a soldier in the Moscow region. He explained that was because it was too cold to train for skiing in the winter in his childhood village, when temperatures could reach -50 degrees Celsius. Bill Koch, the surprising silver medalist, had shown a great talent as a junior, but nobody had expected him to win the first medal for an American in top-level cross-country competition.