10 kilometres, Women

The Soviet ladies had dominated this event since they made their first appearance in the 1954 World Championships, winning all the gold medals since then. At the World Championships in 1958 they won gold and silver, with Alevtina Kolchina the winner ahead of defending Olympic Champion Lyubov Kozyreva, who was entered for Squaw Valley under her new married name Baranova.

The 1960 10 km race was totally dominated by the Soviet ladies. At the halfway point, defending champion Baranova was in the lead, 15 seconds ahead of World Champion Kolchina. But Mariya Gusakova, sixth in the 1958 World Championships and 23 seconds behind the leader at 5 km, had the strongest finish of all and won by a comfortable margin, 18 seconds ahead of Baranova. Radiya Yeroshina, silver medalist from 1956, finished six seconds ahead of Kolchina and secured the bronze medal. The bronze medalist from 1956, now competing under her married name Sonja Ruthström, was the best non-Soviet skier in fifth place, 23 seconds behind Kolchina. The youngest competitor in the field of 24, Bulgarian Krastana Stoeva, was best of the Middle Europeans, placing ninth.

Two days after Gusakovas’s Olympic triumph, her husband Nikolay Gusakov won the bronze medal in Nordic Combined.