Cross Country Skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics

Dates 12 – 26 February 2006
Medal Events 12

The 2006 cross-country events were held at Pragelato a small commune in Torino Province, and Piemonte Region. The events were conducted at a Nordic center specifically built for the Torino Olympics. The program was changed once again, although it was kept at 12 events, six for men and women. Both men and women added a team sprint event, which consisted of teams of two skiers, skiing six legs. In theory a skier could ski between three to six legs, but in reality, all teams alternated legs, with each sprinter skiing three legs. The event consists of a semi-final round advancing teams to a final of 10 teams. To make room on the schedule for another event and more skiers in the field, the middle-distance individual events for men and women, 30 km and 15 km respectively, were eliminated from the program. The men’s 30 km had been on the Olympic Program since 1956.

Unlike many other Winter Olympics, no single skier dominated the cross-country events. In fact, 10 different skiers won two Olympic medals, but nobody won three. Only two skiers won two golds, Giorgio Di Centa and Björn Lind, Lind in the two sprint races.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Sprint (Freestyle), Men Olympic 22 February 2006 80 34
15 kilometres (Classical), Men Olympic 17 February 2006 99 46
50 kilometres (Mass Start, Freestyle), Men Olympic 26 February 2006 79 31
30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men Olympic 12 February 2006 76 27
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men Olympic 19 February 2006 64 16
Team Sprint (Classical), Men Olympic 14 February 2006 48 24
Sprint (Freestyle), Women Olympic 22 February 2006 66 28
10 kilometres (Classical), Women Olympic 16 February 2006 72 29
30 kilometres (Mass Start, Freestyle), Women Olympic 24 February 2006 61 22
15 kilometres Skiathlon, Women Olympic 12 February 2006 67 28
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women Olympic 18 February 2006 68 17
Team Sprint (Classical), Women Olympic 14 February 2006 32 16
307 (183/124) 53 (53/34)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Sprint, Men Björn LindSWE Roddy DarragonFRA Thobias FredrikssonSWE
15 kilometres, Men Andrus VeerpaluEST Lukáš BauerCZE Tobias AngererGER
50 kilometres, Men Giorgio Di CentaITA Yevgeny DementyevRUS Mikhail BotvinovAUT
30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men Yevgeny DementyevRUS Frode EstilNOR Pietro Piller CottrerITA
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men ItalyITA GermanyGER SwedenSWE
Team Sprint, Men SwedenSWE NorwayNOR Russian FederationRUS
Sprint, Women Chandra CrawfordCAN Claudia NystadGER Alyona SidkoRUS
10 kilometres, Women Kristina ŠmigunEST Marit BjørgenNOR Hilde Gjermundshaug PedersenNOR
30 kilometres, Women Kateřina NeumannováCZE Yuliya ChepalovaRUS Justyna KowalczykPOL
15 kilometres Skiathlon, Women Kristina ŠmigunEST Kateřina NeumannováCZE Yevgeniya MedvedevaRUS
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women Russian FederationRUS GermanyGER ItalyITA
Team Sprint, Women SwedenSWE CanadaCAN FinlandFIN

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Sweden SWE 3 0 2 5
Estonia EST 3 0 0 3
Russian Federation RUS 2 2 3 7
Italy ITA 2 0 2 4
Czechia CZE 1 2 0 3
Canada CAN 1 1 0 2
Germany GER 0 3 1 4
Norway NOR 0 3 1 4
France FRA 0 1 0 1
Austria AUT 0 0 1 1
Finland FIN 0 0 1 1
Poland POL 0 0 1 1