Today's daytime medals begin with cross country skiing. In the men's 4x10k Relay, each of four athletes skis 10 kilometers with the first two competitors racing in classic style and the last two skiers racing in freestyle format.
While this event is almost always dominated by the plus sign flag countries, 50 degree conditions have made cross country a bit more unpredictable this year. Nevertheless, my pick to win is Norway (Zach Chromiak/Banker's Club). Their team of Eldar Ronning, Odd-Bjorn Hjelmeset, Tore Rouud Hofstad, and Petter Northug won the 2009 World Championship and should take the gold despite some struggles in the individual events. That would be a big win for a program that finished just fifth at Turin after taking two consecutive gold medals previously in this event.
Apart from Norway the best distance skiers belong to Sweden (Brian Schwartz/Nordique Combined), as we saw in the 30k. Although Italy took a surprising win, Norway's archrival Swedes are the only real threat to beat them this year and are my pick for silver.For bronze, the undrafted Canadians are hoping for their first cross country medal in this event after placing three skiers in the top 10 in the 30k. It won't happen. The bronze will come down to more traditional powers Germany (Adam Claus/Ice Lugers) or Russia (John Binz/Da Nang Dynamos) with my pick being Germany.
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