Magdalena "Magda" Forsberg is a Swedish former cross-country skier and biathlete. She was the dominant female biathlete from 1997 to 2002, when she retired, winning the Biathlon World Cup for six years straight. She is also a six-time world champion, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist, and holds the record for the most World Cup victories in women's biathlon.
Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle is a retired German cross-country skier and biathlete from Reit im Winkl who has competed since 1998. She was born in Traunstein, West Germany. Competing in three Winter Olympics, she won five medals with two golds and three silvers.
Olga Valeryevna Medvedtseva, former Pyleva, née Zamorozova, is a former Russian biathlete.
Antje Harvey is a former German cross-country skier and biathlete.
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen is a retired Finnish cross-country skier who competed in the World Cup between 1998 and 2018. With 354 individual World Cup starts, Saarinen is the current record holder for both men and women, with Stefanie Böhler in second place with 343.
Virpi Katriina Sarasvuo is a Finnish former cross-country skier who competed from 1995 to 2010. She won a bronze medal in the team sprint event at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and earned her best individual finish of fifth in the individual sprint event in those same games. Four years later in Vancouver, Kuitunen won another bronze, this time in the 4 × 5 km relay.
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 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 took place 22 February – 4 March 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. It was the second time this city has hosted these championships, having previously done so in the 1972 Winter Olympics. Sapporo was selected as venue by vote at the 43rd FIS World Congress in Portorož, Slovenia, on 6 June 2002. It also marked the third time the championships were hosted outside Europe in a year that did not coincide with the Winter Olympics; it was the first championship held in Asia. The ski jumping team normal hill event was not held, as it had been in 2005.
Milla Saari is a Finnish former cross-country skier who competed from 1994 to 2007. She was best known for her doping role in the 2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships doping scandal that would affect five other Finnish skiers for taking hydroxyethyl starch (HES), a blood plasma expander. Saari, then Jauho, was part of the 4 × 5 km relay team that finished second, but would be disqualified for her blood doping and would receive a two-year suspension from the FIS as a result. She also finished sixth in the 15 km event at those same championships.
Teja Gregorin is a retired Slovenian biathlete.
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.
Ekaterina Valeryevna Iourieva is a Russian former biathlete and 2008 World Champion in the 15 km individual. She was disqualified for 10 years for doping violations.
Svetlana Yuryevna Sleptsova is a retired Russian biathlete. She is a member of the club CSKA. She is a three-time Junior World Champion and won the bronze medal in the mixed relay at the 2008 World Championships in Östersund. In 2009, she was part of the gold medal winning Russian women's relay team at the World Championships in Pyeongchang. Sleptsova is an Olympic champion in relay at Vancouver.
Kaisa Leena Mäkäräinen is a Finnish former world-champion and 3-time world-cup-winning biathlete, who currently competes for Kontiolahden Urheilijat. Outside sports, Mäkäräinen is currently studying to be a Physics teacher at the University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu. Her team coach is Jonne Kähkönen, while Jarmo Punkkinen is her ski coach.
At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, Czech Republic, twelve cross-country skiing events were held with six for men and six for women. The format of the program was unchanged since the 2005 World Championships in Oberstdorf, Germany. For the men's events, Norway won five of the six events and a total of six medals with Petter Northug winning golds in the pursuit, 50 km and relay events. Ola Vigen Hattestad won two golds in the sprint events. The only event the Norwegians did not win was in the 15 km event, won by Estonia's Andrus Veerpalu, who became the oldest world champion ever.
The women's 4 x 5 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was held on 25 February at Whistler Olympic Park at 11:15 PST.
The Women's 4 × 5 kilometre relay at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2011 was held on 3 March 2011 at 14:00 CET. The defending world champions were the Finnish team of Pirjo Muranen, Virpi Kuitunen, Riitta-Liisa Roponen and Aino-Kaisa Saarinen while the defending Olympic champions were the Norwegian team of Vibeke Skofterud, Therese Johaug, Kristin Størmer Steira and Marit Bjørgen. Kuitunen retired after the 2009-10 season.
Biathlon at the 2014 Winter Olympics was held at the Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex near Krasnaya Polyana, Russia. The eleven events took place between 8–22 February 2014.
Mari Eder is a Finnish former biathlete and cross-country skier.
The McLaren Report is the name given to an independent report released in two parts by professor Richard McLaren into allegations and evidence of state-sponsored doping in Russia. It was commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in May 2016. In July 2016, McLaren presented the first part of the report, indicating systematic state-sponsored subversion of the drug testing processes by the government of Russia during and subsequent to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In December 2016, he published the second part of the report on doping in Russia.
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