Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Women's sprint

Women's sprint at the XX Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Pragelato
Dates	February 22
Competitors	66 from 28 nations
Medalists
Chandra Crawford   Canada   Claudia Kuenzel   Germany   Alena Sidko   Russia

Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Distance
10 km				women
15 km		men		women
30 km		men		women
50 km		men
4 x 5 km relay				women
4 x 10 km relay		men
Sprint
Individual		men		women
Team		men		women

The Women's sprint cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 22 February, at Pragelato.

Emilie Öhrstig was the defending World Champion, but she won in the classical style, and the last free style sprint in the World Championships (in 2003) was won by Marit Bjørgen. Julija Tchepalova is defending Olympic champion. The most recent free style sprint event in the World Cup, however, was won by the Russian Alena Sidko at 30 December 2005.

Results

Qualifying

Sixty-six skiers completed the 1.1 kilometre course in the qualifying portion of the event, with the top thirty advancing to the quarterfinals.^[1]

Rank	Name	Country	Time	Notes
1	Beckie Scott	Canada	2:12.45	Q
2	Arianna Follis	Italy	2:12.90	Q
3	Lina Andersson	Sweden	2:13.29	Q
4	Claudia Kuenzel	Germany	2:13.64	Q
5	Alena Sidko	Russia	2:14.54	Q
6	Petra Majdič	Slovenia	2:14.62	Q
7	Virpi Kuitunen	Finland	2:14.83	Q
8	Chandra Crawford	Canada	2:15.06	Q
9	Sara Renner	Canada	2:15.37	Q
10	Kikkan Randall	United States	2:15.63	Q
11	Aino Kaisa Saarinen	Finland	2:15.75	Q
12	Anna Dahlberg	Sweden	2:15.91	Q
13	Ella Gjømle	Norway	2:16.02	Q
14	Manuela Henkel	Germany	2:16.04	Q
15	Madoka Natsumi	Japan	2:16.30	Q
16	Viktoria Lopatina	Belarus	2:16.36	Q
17	Marit Bjørgen	Norway	2:16.38	Q
18	Magda Genuin	Italy	2:16.41	Q
19	Britta Norgren	Sweden	2:16.43	Q
20	Olga Moskalenko-Rotcheva	Russia	2:16.43	Q
21	Emelie Öhrstig	Sweden	2:16.75	Q
22	Julija Tchepalova	Russia	2:16.90	Q
23	Hilde G. Pedersen	Norway	2:17.17	Q
24	Kati Venalainen	Finland	2:17.29	Q
25	Natalia Matveeva	Russia	2:17.73	Q
26	Laurence Rochat	Switzerland	2:17.73	Q
27	Alena Prochazkova	Slovakia	2:17.75	Q
28	Nobuko Fukuda	Japan	2:17.82	Q
29	Olga Vasiljonok	Belarus	2:18.12	Q
30	Stefanie Boehler	Germany	2:18.14	Q
31	Nicole Fessel	Germany	2:18.35
32	Seraina Mischol	Switzerland	2:18.83
33	Barbara Moriggl	Italy	2:19.12
34	Aurelie Perrillat	France	2:19.28
35	Wendy Kay Wagner	United States	2:19.71
36	Vita Jakimchuk	Ukraine	2:19.92
37	Irina Terentjeva	Lithuania	2:20.08
38	Elena Kolomina	Kazakhstan	2:20.28
38	Lindsey Williams	United States	2:20.28
40	Vesna Fabjan	Slovenia	2:20.34
41	Tatjana Mannima	Estonia	2:20.44
42	Elina Hietamaeki	Finland	2:20.49
43	Marina Malets Lisogor	Ukraine	2:20.79
44	Justyna Kowalczyk	Poland	2:21.19
45	Natalya Issachenko	Kazakhstan	2:21.22
46	Oxana Jatskaja	Kazakhstan	2:22.12
47	Emilie Vina	France	2:22.42
48	Kaili Sirge	Estonia	2:22.42
49	Amanda Ammar	Canada	2:22.78
50	Eva Nývltová	Czech Republic	2:22.86
51	Ekaterina Rudakova Bulauka	Belarus	2:23.19
52	Esther Bottomley	Australia	2:23.55
53	Katarina Garajova	Slovakia	2:23.98
54	Piret Pormeister	Estonia	2:24.67
55	Elodie Bourgeois Pin	France	2:24.77
56	Man Dandan	China	2:25.16
57	Song Bo	China	2:27.07
58	Maja Kezele	Croatia	2:27.16
59	Monika Gyorgy	Romania	2:27.53
60	Daria Starostina	Kazakhstan	2:27.58
61	Jia Yuping	China	2:30.03
62	Elena Gorohova	Moldova	2:31.61
63	Kelime Aydin	Turkey	2:33.33
64	Lee Chae-Won	South Korea	2:35.47
65	Liu Liming	China	2:35.76
66	Panagiota Tsakiri	Greece	2:43.28

Quarterfinals

There were five quarterfinal races, each with six skiers. The top two in each heat advanced to the semifinals.^[1]

Quarterfinal 1

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	1	Beckie Scott (CAN)	2:16.6	Q
2	10	Kikkan Randall (USA)	2:17.8	Q
3	20	Olga Moskalenko-Rotcheva (RUS)	2:18.4
4	30	Stefanie Boehler (GER)	2:18.5
5	21	Emelie Öhrstig (SWE)	2:19.9
6	11	Aino Kaisa Saarinen (FIN)	2:20.7

Quarterfinal 2

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	4	Claudia Kuenzel (GER)	2:15.5	Q
2	7	Virpi Kuitunen (FIN)	2:16.2	Q
3	14	Manuela Henkel (GER)	2:16.4
4	17	Marit Bjørgen (NOR)	2:16.8
5	27	Alena Prochazkova (SVK)	2:17.9
6	24	Kati Venalainen (FIN)	2:18.1

Quarterfinal 3

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	5	Alena Sidko (RUS)	2:17.7	Q
2	6	Petra Majdič (SLO)	2:17.7	Q
3	26	Laurence Rochat (SUI)	2:18.9
4	15	Madoka Natsumi (JPN)	2:19.9
5	16	Viktoria Lopatina (BLR)	2:24.8
6	25	Natalia Matveeva (RUS)	2:31.4

Quarterfinal 4

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	12	Anna Dahlberg (SWE)	2:14.3	Q
2	2	Arianna Follis (ITA)	2:14.7	Q
3	19	Britta Norgren (SWE)	2:15.0
4	9	Sara Renner (CAN)	2:15.6
5	29	Olga Vasiljonok (BLR)	2:16.6
6	22	Julija Tchepalova (RUS)	2:16.6

Quarterfinal 5

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	8	Chandra Crawford (CAN)	2:14.2	Q
2	13	Ella Gjømle (NOR)	2:15.7	Q
3	3	Lina Andersson (SWE)	2:16.0
4	18	Magda Genuin (ITA)	2:17.9
5	28	Nobuko Fukuda (JPN)	2:18.2
6	23	Hilde G. Pedersen (NOR)	2:19.1

Semifinals

There were two semifinal races, each with five skiers. The top two in each semifinal advanced to the A Final, to compete for the top four places, while the third and fourth-placed finishers advanced to the B Final, for places five through eight.^[1]

Semifinal 1

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	4	Claudia Kuenzel (GER)	2:15.5	Q
2	1	Beckie Scott (CAN)	2:15.8	Q
3	7	Virpi Kuitunen (FIN)	2:16.3
4	6	Petra Majdič (SLO)	2:18.7
5	10	Kikkan Randall (USA)	2:19.1

Semifinal 2

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result	Notes
1	8	Chandra Crawford (CAN)	2:13.4	Q
2	5	Alena Sidko (RUS)	2:15.1	Q
3	2	Arianna Follis (ITA)	2:16.2
4	13	Ella Gjømle (NOR)	2:16.4
5	12	Anna Dahlberg (SWE)	2:18.9

Finals

Chandra Crawford finished 0.7 seconds ahead of Claudia Kuenzel to win the Olympic gold medal in the women's cross-country sprint.^[1]

Final A

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result
1	8	Chandra Crawford (CAN)	2:12.3
2	4	Claudia Kuenzel (GER)	2:13.0
3	5	Alena Sidko (RUS)	2:13.2
4	1	Beckie Scott (CAN)	2:14.7

Final B

Rank	Seed	Athlete	Result
1	7	Virpi Kuitunen (FIN)	2:18.1
2	13	Ella Gjømle (NOR)	2:18.2
3	2	Arianna Follis (ITA)	2:20.3
4	6	Petra Majdič (SLO)	2:21.5

References