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| Event type

15 kilometres, Men

Date23 February 1960
StatusOlympic
LocationMcKinney Creek Stadium, Tahoma, California
Participants54 from 19 countries
DetailsCourse Length: ?
Height Differential: ?
Intermediate 1: 5.0 km
Intermediate 2: 10.0 km
Maximum Climb: ?
Total Climbing: ?

The Norwegian cross country skiers had several bad seasons after the 1956 Games. In the world Championships in Lahti, Finland in 1958, they came home with no medals, their best individual placing was fifth in the 15 km race, achieved by Håkon Brusveen.

At the first Norwegian selection races Brusveen was not at his best, but showed better form in the last race when placing fourth in the Norwegian Championships in 15km, only 11 seconds behind the winner Brenden. The Norwegian Olympic Committee selected seven cross country skiers for Squaw Valley. Brusveen was appointed as a substitute who should stay at home in Norway, to Brusveen’s great disappointment and loud protests in the Norwegian media. An extra selection race over 12 km was decided, only two days before the team should leave for Squaw Valley. Brusveen showed superior form and won, over 40 seconds ahead of double Olympic champion Hallgeir Brenden. The sports enthusiast King Olav V told the NOC that he would like to see Brusveen in the Olympics, and the decision was changed. Brusveen, aged 33, and having already decided that 1960 would be his last season, travelled to the US one the day after the main team had left Oslo.

The 15 km race took place four days after the 30 km race, which ended with another disappointment for the Norwegians, Brenden as their best, placing only ninth. Brusveen was then selected for the 15km team, starting with number 20 out of 54 competitors. After 5 km it looked to be another great day for Sweden. Janne Stefansson was in the lead, three seconds ahead of Sixten Jernberg, with Rolf Rämgård another four seconds behind. It was very close, Gennady Vaganov following only one second behind Rämgård, and with Brusveen in sixth place, still in contention for a medal, 17 seconds behind the leader. At 10 km things had changed. Jernberg was now in the lead, but only two seconds ahead of fast charging Brusveen and Veikko Hakulinen, the Finn showing better form than in the 30 km. Stefansson was down in fourth place, 16 seconds behind. The final stage of the race developed into a real thriller. Brusveen was first to finish of the medal favorites. He finished his race in excellent style and bettered Stefansson’s leading time by more than 50 seconds. Hakulinen could not respond to Brusveen’s finishing speed. The last challenger was Jernberg. The gold medalist from the 30 km race could not match Brusveen’s finish, but secured his sixth Olympic medal, only 3.1 seconds behind the overjoyed Olympic Champion Brusveen.

Håkon Brusveen was later to become an extremely popular radio commentator, for many years giving intermediate reports from out on the cross country track at national and international championships via a portable radio transmission set.

PosNumberCompetitorNOCTime
120Håkon BrusveenNOR51:55.5Gold
250Sixten JernbergSWE51:58.6Silver
334Veikko HakulinenFIN52:03.0Bronze
=427Einar ØstbyNOR52:18.0
=428Gennady VaganovURS52:18.0
640Eero MäntyrantaFIN52:40.6
75Janne StefanssonSWE52:41.0
829Rolf RämgårdSWE52:47.3
945Marcello De DorigoITA52:53.5
1038Nikolay AnikinURS52:55.0
111Harald GrønningenNOR53:02.2
1244Hallgeir BrendenNOR53:10.3
134Väinö HuhtalaFIN53:11.5
1432Giulio DeflorianITA53:24.1
158Aleksandr GubinURS53:29.1
1612Pavel MorshchininURS53:36.6
1714Per-Erik LarssonSWE53:49.8
1841Józef RysulaPOL54:13.3
1916Pompeo FattorITA54:31.1
2010Giuseppe SteinerITA54:42.3
2142Jean MermetFRA54:44.5
2223Mack MillerUSA54:49.0
2322Toimi AlataloFIN54:52.7
2421Kuno WernerGER55:25.6
256Benoît CarraraFRA55:38.5
2631Victor ArbezFRA55:41.1
2735Alphonse BaumeSUI55:58.9
2833Kazimierz ZelekPOL55:59.4
2919René MandrillonFRA56:01.5
3030Kazuo SatoJPN56:15.0
3139Lorenz PossaSUI56:30.1
3237Enno RöderGER56:54.4
3351Stefan MitkovBUL56:55.4
3447Pál SajgóHUN57:02.9
3554Clarence ServoldCAN57:04.7
3648Rudolf ČillíkTCH57:23.7
3711Marcel HugueninSUI57:36.7
382Werner HaaseGER57:40.3
397Konrad HischierSUI57:43.9
4049Takashi MatsuhashiJPN57:49.1
413Józef Gut MisiagaPOL58:03.6
4225Siegfried WeißGER58:04.6
4317Andrzej MatejaPOL58:09.1
4452John MooreGBR58:35.0
4513Eiji KuritaJPN58:57.0
4618Peter LahdenperaUSA59:13.0
4724Irvin ServoldCAN59:42.0
4843Olavi HirvonenUSA1-00:38.6
4926Andrew MorganGBR1-01:32.9
509Charlie AkersUSA1-02:35.7
5146Dick WalpoleAUS1-06:48.3
5215Norman ShuttGBR1-07:34.0
5353Francisco JermanARG1-09:59.3
5436Kim Ha-YunKOR1-15:26.5