5 kilometres, Classical, Women

The race was be held in a snowstorm and it would be the last time women raced 5 km at the Winter Olympics, as the short distance race for women would be replaced by the 10 km in 2002. The favorites were Norway’s Bente Martinsen and Russia’s Larisa Lazutina, who were leading the 1997-98 sprint World Cup. Lazutina had won five medals at the 1995 World Championships but struggled at the 1997 Worlds. She then switched to training with her husband, eschewing the national team coaches. In Hakuba she would again win five medals, with three gold medals. One of the gold medals came in this race, which she won by 4.8 seconds over Czech skier Kateřina Neumannová.

Neumannová had competed at the 1992 and 1994 Winter Olympics and at the 1996 Olympics in mountain biking. She would compete again at the 2002 and 2006 Winter Olympics. Lazutina also competed at the 2002 Winter Olympics, but would be disqualified for doping, testing positive for darbopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue. Martinsen narrowly won the bronze medal in this race. She would win the sprint World Cup for the next three seasons, and would win five individual gold medals in the shorter distances at the next three World Championships. She was the daughter of Odd Martinsen, who skied cross-country for Norway at the 1968 and 1976 Winter Olympics, winning three medals, including relay gold in 1968.