Cross Country Skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics

Dates 15 – 28 February 2010
Medal Events 12

All the 2010 cross-country events were held at Whistler Olympic Park, which served ably. There was plenty of snow, unlike nearer Vancouver, and especially at Cypress Mountain, where freestyle and snowboarding were held. The program was essentially the same as in 2006 – there was a short-distance and marathon-type race for men and women, a sprint, a team sprint, a pursuit, and a relay. The pursuit was the same as in 2006 but had been changed in 2002, however, and really was not much of a pursuit at all. The skiers all started at the same time, skiing a classical leg, followed by a pit stop to change to shorter skis, and then finishing with a freestyle leg. The short-distance races were both freestyle, at 10 km for women and 15 km for men, while the marathons were skied classically, at 30 km for women and 50 km for men.

After their poor showing at the 2006 Torino Games, the pressure was on Norway to deliver medals this time, and they did not disappoint, winning five golds, two silvers and two bronzes to be the leading nation. Marit Bjørgen (NOR) was the star of the women, taking three gold medals, two of which were in team events, and just missing out on a fourth to Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) by the length of a ski boot in the 30 kilometres event. For Kowalczyk, this completed her set of gold, silver and bronze medals from these Games. Petter Northug (NOR) had been bitterly disappointed not to have been selected for his country in 2006, and made up for it in Vancouver, winning two golds a silver and a bronze in his events, including a victory in a sprint finish of the 50 km, although his first two finishes were disappointments; however, he rebounded to win his four medals. The medals were shared between 11 European nations, with Sweden maintaining their form from 2006, having spent many years in the doldrums before that.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Sprint (Classical), Men Olympic 17 February 2010 62 25
15 kilometres (Freestyle), Men Olympic 15 February 2010 95 49
50 kilometres (Mass Start, Classical), Men Olympic 28 February 2010 53 21
30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men Olympic 20 February 2010 64 26
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men Olympic 24 February 2010 56 14
Team Sprint (Freestyle), Men Olympic 22 February 2010 44 22
Sprint (Classical), Women Olympic 17 February 2010 54 27
10 kilometres (Freestyle), Women Olympic 15 February 2010 78 36
30 kilometres (Mass Start, Classical), Women Olympic 27 February 2010 53 21
15 kilometres Skiathlon, Women Olympic 19 February 2010 66 24
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women Olympic 25 February 2010 64 16
Team Sprint (Freestyle), Women Olympic 22 February 2010 36 18
292 (163/129) 55 (52/42)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Sprint, Men Nikita KryukovRUS Aleksandr PanzhinskyRUS Petter NorthugNOR
15 kilometres, Men Dario ColognaSUI Pietro Piller CottrerITA Lukáš BauerCZE
50 kilometres, Men Petter NorthugNOR Axel TeichmannGER Johan OlssonSWE
30 kilometres Skiathlon, Men Marcus HellnerSWE Tobias AngererGER Johan OlssonSWE
4 × 10 kilometres Relay, Men SwedenSWE NorwayNOR Czech RepublicCZE
Team Sprint, Men NorwayNOR GermanyGER Russian FederationRUS
Sprint, Women Marit BjørgenNOR Justyna KowalczykPOL Petra MajdičSLO
10 kilometres, Women Charlotte KallaSWE Kristina Šmigun-VähiEST Marit BjørgenNOR
30 kilometres, Women Justyna KowalczykPOL Marit BjørgenNOR Aino-Kaisa SaarinenFIN
15 kilometres Skiathlon, Women Marit BjørgenNOR Anna HaagSWE Justyna KowalczykPOL
4 × 5 kilometres Relay, Women NorwayNOR GermanyGER FinlandFIN
Team Sprint, Women GermanyGER SwedenSWE Russian FederationRUS

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
Norway NOR 5 2 2 9
Sweden SWE 3 2 2 7
Germany GER 1 4 0 5
Russian Federation RUS 1 1 2 4
Poland POL 1 1 1 3
Switzerland SUI 1 0 0 1
Estonia EST 0 1 0 1
Italy ITA 0 1 0 1
Czechia CZE 0 0 2 2
Finland FIN 0 0 2 2
Slovenia SLO 0 0 1 1