Cross-country skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women's 30 kilometre classical

Women's 30 kilometre classical at the XXI Olympic Winter Games
Medal ceremony for the event. From left: Marit Bjørgen (silver), Justyna Kowalczyk (gold), Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (bronze)
Venue	Whistler Olympic Park
Dates	27 February
Competitors	55 from 21 nations
Winning time	1:30:33.7
Medalists
Justyna Kowalczyk   Poland Marit Bjørgen   Norway Aino-Kaisa Saarinen   Finland
←  2006 2014  →

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. ^[1]

Summary

The 30 kilometre has been skated as a mass start event at the World Championships since 2005 and since the 2006 Winter Olympics. Kateřina Neumannová of the Czech Republic was the defending Olympic champion though that event was held in the freestyle technique. ^[2] She retired after the 2006-07 season and later chaired the organizing committee for the 2009 world championships. Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk, the defending Olympic bronze medallist, was the reigning world champion though that was also in the freestyle technique. ^[3] The last World Cup event in the 30 km classical took place in Trondheim, Norway on 14 March 2009 and was won by Petra Majdič of Slovenia. ^[4]

The race was a mass start event where all of the skiers start at the same time.

Results

Majdič, the bronze medallist in the sprint event at these games who also won the last event in this format prior to this race, did not participate in the wake of crashing down a bank, into an unprotected 3 m (9.8 ft) deep gorge and landing on ice and rocks, resulting in five broken ribs and a pneumothorax prior to the start of qualifying for the sprint event ten days earlier. ^[5] This race also matched up the last four world champions in this event (Zavyalova: 2003, ^[6] Bjørgen: 2005, ^[7] Kuitunen: 2007, ^[8] and Kowalczyk: 2009. ^[3] ).

At the 7.1 km mark, the top three leaders were Størmer Steira (who finished eighth), Jatskaja (who finished 19th), and Kalla (who finished sixth). Kowalczyk, the defending world champion, led at the halfway mark, followed by Saarinen and Longa (who finished 12th). Bjørgen, the 2005 world champion in this event, held the lead at the 22.1 km mark, followed by Kowalczyk and Saarinen, who changed skis at the 25 km mark. Kowalczyk's finish over Bjørgen was the closest in Olympic history, edging out Neumannová's 1.4-second win over Russia's Yuliya Chepalova at the previous Olympics in Turin. ^{[9] [10]}

Kowalczyk is the first woman from Poland to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics and only the second overall, after Wojciech Fortuna's victory in the ski jumping individual large hill event at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. ^[11] Saarinen earned her first and only individual Winter Olympic medal. 2003 World champion Zavylova finished 23rd while 2007 World champion Kuitunen finished 14th.

Rank	Bib	Name	Country	Time	Deficit
	1	Justyna Kowalczyk	Poland	1:30:33.7	0.0
	5	Marit Bjørgen	Norway	1:30:34.0	+0.3
	2	Aino-Kaisa Saarinen	Finland	1:31:38.7	+1:05.0
4	10	Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle	Germany	1:31:52.9	+1:19.2
5	24	Masako Ishida	Japan	1:31:56.5	+1:22.8
6	3	Charlotte Kalla	Sweden	1:31:57.6	+1:23.9
7	20	Therese Johaug	Norway	1:32:01.3	+1:27.6
8	4	Kristin Størmer Steira	Norway	1:32:04.4	+1:30.7
9	23	Anna Olsson	Sweden	1:33:00.3	+2:26.6
10	22	Karine Laurent Philippot	France	1:33:11.4	+2:37.7
11	6	Marianna Longa	Italy	1:33:19.9	+2:46.2
12	17	Riikka Sarasoja	Finland	1:33:33.2	+2:59.5
13	8	Virpi Kuitunen	Finland	1:33:36.7	+3:03.0
14	35	Aurore Cuinet	France	1:33:58.3	+3:24.6
15	25	Sara Renner	Canada	1:34:04.2	+3:30.5
16	27	Antonella Confortola	Italy	1:34:07.7	+3:34.0
17	26	Stefanie Böhler	Germany	1:34:08.7	+3:35.0
18	36	Oxana Jatskaja	Kazakhstan	1:34:11.0	+3:37.3
19	16	Katrin Zeller	Germany	1:34:18.1	+3:44.4
20	15	Marthe Kristoffersen	Norway	1:34:31.1	+3:57.8
21	38	Tatjana Zavalij	Ukraine	1:34:32.3	+3:58.6
22	9	Olga Zavyalova	Russia	1:34:46.3	+4:12.6
23	33	Kikkan Randall	United States	1:34:59.0	+4:25.3
24	41	Sylwia Jaśkowiec	Poland	1:34:59.1	+4:25.4
25	30	Krista Lähteenmäki	Finland	1:35:08.4	+4:34.7
26	42	Kateryna Grygorenko	Ukraine	1:35:11.4	+4:37.7
27	11	Kristina Šmigun-Vähi	Estonia	1:35:27.2	+4:53.5
28	54	Paulina Maciuszek	Poland	1:36:31.7	+5:58.0
29	12	Olga Rocheva	Russia	1:37:15.5	+6:41.8
30	55	Madoka Natsumi	Japan	1:37:35.4	+7:01.7
31	32	Li Hongxue	China	1:37:50.4	+7:16.7
32	28	Kateřina Smutná	Austria	1:37:51.3	+7:17.6
33	19	Elena Kolomina	Kazakhstan	1:37:53.0	+7:19.3
34	48	Marina Matrossova	Kazakhstan	1:38:00.6	+7:26.9
35	46	Holly Brooks	United States	1:38:14.5	+7:40.8
36	34	Laura Orgué	Spain	1:38:18.3	+7:44.6
37	14	Olga Schuchkina	Russia	1:38:30.3	+7:56.6
38	29	Alena Sannikova	Belarus	1:38:31.3	+7:57.6
39	37	Eva Nývltová	Czech Republic	1:38:40.1	+8:06.4
40	31	Ivana Janečková	Czech Republic	1:40:13.6	+9:39.9
41	43	Tatjana Mannima	Estonia	1:40:51.3	+10:17.6
42	13	Svetlana Malahova-Shishkina	Kazakhstan	1:41:01.6	+10:27.9
43	51	Lada Nesterenko	Ukraine	1:41:40.1	+11:06.4
44	45	Nastassia Dubarezava	Belarus	1:42:28.1	+11:54.4
45	49	Madeleine Williams	Canada	1:42:33.7	+12:00.0
46	50	Monika Gyorgy	Romania	1:44:03.5	+13:29.8
47	53	Eva Skalníková	Czech Republic	1:44:47.8	+14:04.1
	47	Kornelia Marek	Poland	DSQ
	7	Valentina Shevchenko	Ukraine	DNF
	44	Ida Ingemarsdotter	Sweden	DNF
	39	Cécile Storti	France	DNF
	40	Morgan Arritola	United States	DNF
	52	Laurence Rochat	Switzerland	DNF
	18	Sabina Valbusa	Italy	DNS
	21	Kamila Rajdlová	Czech Republic	DNS

References

1. 2010 Winter Olympics Cross-Country skiing schedule. - accessed 3 November 2009.
2. 2006 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiing 24 February 2006 women's 30 km freestyle mass start results. Archived 16 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 3 November 2009.
3. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 Cross-country skiing 28 February 2009 women's 30 km freestyle mass start results. Archived 31 March 2009 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 3 November 2009.
4. FIS Cross-Country Skiing World Cup Trondheim 14 March 2009 women's 30 km classical mass start results. Archived 8 March 2011 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 3 November 2009.
5. "Po podelitvi medalj Petra s helikopterjem v bolnišnico".
6. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 Cross-country skiing 28 February 2003 women's 30 km freestyle results. Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 27 February 2010.
7. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2005 Cross-country skiing 26 February 2005 women's 30 km classical mass start results. Archived 1 April 2010 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 27 February 2010.
8. FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 Cross-country skiing 3 March 2007 women's 30 km classical mass start results. Archived 24 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 27 February 2010.
9. 2010 Winter Olympics 27 February 2010 Cross-country skiing women's 30 km classical mass start results. Archived 4 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine - accessed 28 February 2010.
10. Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Cross-Country (Nordic) Skiing, Women: 4 x 5-Kilometre Relay". In The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition. London: Aurum Press Limited. p. 251.
11. Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Ski Jumping: Large Hill Individual". In The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition. London: Aurum Pres Limited. p. 264.

External links

• 2010 Winter Olympics results:Ladies' 30 km, Mass Start Classic, from https://web.archive.org/web/20100222080013/http://www.vancouver2010.com/ retrieved 2010-02-26.