Therese Johaug, the Norwegian cross-country skier who served an 18-month doping ban, has won the first gold medal of the Beijing Winter Olympics.
Johaug skied away to win the women's skiathlon at Zhangjiakou cross-country centre, finishing half a minute ahead of Russia's Natalia Nepryaeva with Teresa Stadlober of Austria in third.
It is Johaug’s fourth Olympic medal, having won a relay gold in Vancouver in 2010 and individual silver and bronze medals in Sochi in 2014.
However, she missed the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang after testing positive for the banned anabolic steroid clostebol, for which she had an initial 13-month suspension extended following an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Johaug argued that she had unintentionally taken the steroid having used a lotion that had been approved by the team to treat sunburned lips during an off-season camp in Italy.
The 33-year-old Johaug, who is also a 14-time world champion, is expected to add to her medal haul at further events in the women’s cross-country programme.
