20 kilometres (Freestyle), Women

This event was no longer held at the World Championships, having been supplanted by a 30 km race in 1987 at Oberstdorf, and this would be the last time it was held at the Winter Olympics, as the 30 km would become the women’s long-distance event from 1992 onwards. The 1987 World Champion in the 30 km was Sweden’s Marie-Helene Westin-Östlund but she was never a factor in Calgary, finishing 10th. The race was dominated by two Soviet skiers, Tamara Tikhonova and Anfisa Reztsova, who were 1-2 at every checkpoint, and would win the gold and silver medal, respectively, Reztsova over a minute ahead of the bronze medalist, their teammate, Raisa Smetanina. The medal sweep was the first in cross-country skiing since 1960 and 1964, when the Soviet Union won all three medals in the 10 km both years. The fourth Soviet skier was Nina Gavrylyuk, who originally placed eighth but was disqualified for wearing the logo of a shoe manufacturer on her headband.