Finland's Remi Lindholm spent over an hour and 15 minutes traversing the men's cross-country race at the recent Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, leading to some unexpected bolidly complications.
The race had been shortened from 50 kilometres to 30 kilometres, but he still needed a heat pack at the end to thaw out his groin.
"You can guess which body part was a little bit frozen when I finished," he told Finnish media.
"It was one of the worst competitions I've been in.
"It was just about battling through."
He reportedly suffered a similar incident in a cross-country skiing race in Ruka in Finland last year.
Ahead of the race, organisers had been concerned about the weather and racers' risk of frostbite.
They delayed the start time by an hour and shortened its length by 20 kilometres.
Lindholm noted that once the race was over, the real pain began.
"When the body parts started to warm up after the finish, the pain was unbearable."
Lindholm placed 28th out of 59 finishers with a time of 1:15:32.2.
The two Aussies in the race - Seve de Campo and Phil Bellingham - finished 51st and 53rd respectively.
The Russian Olympic Committee's Alexander Bolshunov won the race, taking his total medals at Beijing 2022 to five.
He won in a time of 1:11:32.7, ahead of second placed Ivan Yakimushkin, also from the ROC team, who finished at 1:11:38.2.
Norway's Simen Hegstad Kruger got the Bronze with 1:11:39.7.
Topics: SPORT, News, Winter Olympics 2022
Vivienne Kelly