RSA President Elena Vyalbe has announced a boycott of Norwegian journalists, insisting she will refuse to speak to any publication from the country.

The move comes after Jan Petter Saltvedt, a journalist for Norwegian broadcaster NRK, argued that Bolshunov, winner of the men’s sprint free in emphatic fashion on Monday (February 7), and other ROC athletes should not be at the Games.

He cited Russia’s state-sponsored doping scandal from the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, which, he claimed, "culminated in the rather incomprehensible verdict".

Russian athletes are competing under the ROC banner as part of sanctions imposed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against Russia in connection with the manipulation of data from the Moscow Laboratory.

WADA initially handed Russia a four-year ban but it was later reduced on appeal to two years by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Vyalbe called for a public apology from NRK, claiming the article was a "violation of all conceivable or unthinkable laws".

"I declared a boycott of the Norwegian media," Vyalbe told Russian newspaper Sport Express.

"After the sprint, they came up to me, I told them everything.

"I will not communicate anymore."

Norway’s Therese Johaug, who missed Pyeongchang 2018 after testing positive for doping, triumphed in the women’s skiathlon at Beijing 2022.

"Neither I nor my athletes have ever remembered the disqualification of their athletes, of which there were many," added Vyalbe.

"Why don't we talk about it?

"And you come up with news stories as you go.

"Let them apologise publicly.

"Some half-wits decided to become readable and covered up the failure of the first race in this way.

"I can't take it easy."

In response to the boycott, Saltvedt insisted he did not criticise ROC skiers and described Vyalbe’s actions as "pure theatre".

"This is an attack on the cowardly system that failed to bring about the necessary resolution of the insane systematic doping scandal during the Sochi Olympics," Saltvedt told Swedish newspaper Dagbladet.

"Since she boycotts all the Norwegian press, that says something about the worldview she lives by."

Bolshunov hit back at doping sceptics after being crowned men’s 30 kilometres skiathlon champion.

He finished more than a minute ahead of compatriot Denis Spitsov, while Finland’s Iivo Niskanen of Finland was two minutes further back in third.

When asked to explain his emphatic victory, Bolshunov said: "You're hinting at doping… this should have nothing to do with sports.

"We have clean sportsmen, clean athletes who are at the Olympics who do doping tests almost every day.

"We have to fill out these forms indicating where we will be training, what time, we show the time window when we can take a test, when we are going to be travelling, if I use a plane or a train from one place to another.

"I believe it's wrong to ask us these questions - you don't achieve these results all of a sudden, you don't become an Olympic champion, because it takes years and years of training."

The ROC now finds itself at the centre of more controversy surrounding a drugs test taken by 15-year-old figure skater Kamila Valieva before Beijing 2022.

As insidethegames exclusively revealed, a legal issue involving an anti-doping by Valieva is the reason the medal ceremony for the team figure skating competition at the Winter Olympics has been delayed.

The exact nature of Valieva’s problem is unclear, although there have been widespread claims that the drug involved was not performance-enhancing.

Some reports in Russia have claimed the drug involved is trimetazidine, a medicine usually used to prevent angina attacks and help blood flow to the heart.