10 kilometres, Women

The 10 km. for ladies was first contested at the Oslo Games in 1952, and four years later the starting field had doubled from 20 skiers to 40 in Cortina. The event appeared on the FIS World Championship program in 1954, with Soviet skier Lyubov Kozyreva winning ahead of the Finns Siiri Rantanen and Mirja Hietamies. Kozyreva had also won the pre-Olympic trial at Cortina in 1955.

No official intermediate times were taken during the event, and the first starter on the Soviet team, Anna Kaaleste, with start number 7, took an early lead at the finish with a time of 40:29. The next Soviet skier to reach the finish, start number 15 Radiya Yeroshina, ended her race in excellent style with 38:16, over two minutes faster than the current leader. Alevtina Kolchina, married to double bronze medalist Pavel Kolchin, finished a few minutes later and was half a minute behind Yeroshina in second place, and the next to come was Kozyreva. The World Champion had to struggle hard to beat Yeroshina with a scant five second margin. From one of the latest starting numbers, the 25-year-old Swede Sonja Edström was able to split the leading Soviet trio and secured a surprising bronze medal, only 12 seconds behind the Olympic Champion Kozyreva. Kozyreva won the first gold medal by a Soviet woman at the Olympics.