Any hope of the controversies that have dogged the Beijing Winter Games fading into a feelgood blur of medals once the torch was lit was quickly swept aside on Saturday as the first gold went to a convicted doper.
Therese Johaug, the decorated Norwegian cross-country skier who was barred from competing at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics while serving an 18-month suspension for a positive drugs test, obliterated the field to win the 7.5km+7.5km skiathlon on a windblown afternoon in the tiny village of Taizicheng in the mountains roughly 120km northwest of Beijing.
