Women’s 15 kilometre mass start at the XIX Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
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Venue | Soldier Hollow | ||||||||||||
Dates | 9 February | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 60 from 23 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 39:54.4 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics | ||
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Distance | ||
10 km | women | |
15 km | men | women |
Pursuit | men | women |
30 km | men | women |
50 km | men | |
Relay | men | women |
Sprint | ||
Sprint | men | women |
The Women's 15 kilometre freestyle mass start cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 9 February at Soldier Hollow.
All 60 skiers began at once in a mass start. 2002 was the first time that a mass start was held in the Olympics.
This was the first Winter Olympic cross-country event skied entirely as a mass start race. Previously, this event was held at an interval start. It was also the first cross-country event in Salt Lake City, starting shortly before the men raced 30 km. The 2001 World Champion was Bente Skari of Norway elected not to contest this race, even though she had been the dominant female cross-country racer over the past five years. [1]
The early leader in the race was Russian Yuliya Chepalova, but by 9 km, Italy's Stefania Belmondo, the 1999 World Champion in the event, moved ahead, until her pole broke at 10.5 km. She dropped back to 10th place, but trailed the leader, Larisa Lazutina, by only 10 seconds. Belmondo was given a pole by a French official but it was very long, so she struggled for over 500 metres until an Italian coach gave her one of her own poles. She then powered ahead, caught Lazutina and won a narrow victory by 1.8 seconds. Behind them, Czech skier Katerina Neumannová came in for the bronze medal. But Lazutina would not keep her silver medal. After the pursuit race, held six days later, she was found to have tested positive for darpopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue, and was disqualified in late 2003. Neumannová was moved up to silver medal, and Chepalova would get the bronze. Chepalova failed drug tests later in her career, but here Olympic results were left unaffected. [2]
The race was started at 09:00. [3]
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIX Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event held in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, from February 8 to February 24, 2002. A total of 2,399 athletes from 77 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) participated in these Games, competing in 78 events in 15 sports and disciplines.
Larisa Yevgenyevna Lazutina is a Russian former professional cross-country skier.
Marit Bjørgen is a former Norwegian cross-country skier. She is ranked first in the all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings with 114 individual victories. Bjørgen is also the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country World Cup history, with 29 victories. She headed the medal table at the 2010 Winter Olympics by winning five medals, including three gold. A five-time Olympian, her five Olympic medals at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games brought her total number of medals up to a record 15, the most by any athlete in Winter Olympics history.
Stefania Belmondo is an Italian former cross-country skier, a two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion in her career.
Olga Valeryevna Danilova is a Russian cross-country skier who competed from 1991 until she was banned for using performance-enhancing drugs in 2002.
Kateřina Neumannová is a Czech retired cross-country skier. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics, in the 30 km freestyle event. She is one of five cross country skiers to have competed at six Olympics.
Yulia Anatolyevna Chepalova is a former Russian cross-country skier.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 took place February 15–25, 2001 in Lahti, Finland for a record sixth time, previous events being held in 1926, 1938, 1958, 1978 and 1989. These championships also saw the most event changes since the 1950s with the 5 km women and 10 km men's events being discontinued, the 10 km women and 15 km men's events return to their normal status for the first time since the 1991 championships, the debut of a combined pursuit as a separate category, the addition of the individual sprint race for both genders, and the debut of the ski jumping team normal hill event. Extremely cold weather cancelled the women's 30 km event. The biggest controversy occurred when a doping scandal hit the host nation of Finland, resulting in six disqualifications. This would serve as a prelude to further doping cases in cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the following year.
The Holmenkollen medal is Norwegian skiing's highest award for competitors. It signifies top placings in international championships and other international events, including the Holmenkollen events.
Mongolia sent a delegation to compete at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States from 8–24 February 2002. This was Mongolia's tenth time participating in a Winter Olympic Games. The delegation consisted of four athletes, two cross-country skiers; Davaagiin Enkhee and Jargalyn Erdenetülkhüür, as well as two short-track speed skating competitors; Battulgyn Oktyabri and Ganbatyn Jargalanchuluun. Erdenetülkhüür placed 63rd in the men's 15 kilometre classical cross-country race; he was the only one of the four to compete in an event final.
Cross-country skiing was one of the three disciplines of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007, held between February 22 and March 4, 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. The sprint events were held at the Sapporo Dome and the distance races were held at the Shirahatayama Open Stadium.
The Women's 30 kilometre freestyle cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was held on 24 February, at Pragelato.
The Women's 15 kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 12 February, at Pragelato.
The women's 30 kilometre classical cross-country skiing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was held on 27 February at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia at 11:45 PST.
The women's 10 kilometre classical cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 12 February at Soldier Hollow.
The women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 19 February at Soldier Hollow.
The Women's 30 kilometre classical interval start cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 24 February at Soldier Hollow. This was the final women's event of the 2002 Olympics cross-country program.
The 2 × 5 kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 24 February at Soldier Hollow.
The women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was held on 16 February at Snow Harp.