Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Women's 15 kilometre pursuit

Women's 15 kilometre pursuit at the XX Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Pragelato
Dates	February 12
Competitors	67 from 28 nations
Winning time	42:48.7
Medalists
Kristina Smigun   Estonia   Kateřina Neumannová   Czech Republic   Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova   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 15 kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 12 February, at Pragelato.

Julija Tchepalova was the reigning World Champion in the event, while Canadian Beckie Scott won the 10 km pursuit at the 2002 Olympics. However, neither were in the medals here; Kristina Šmigun and Kateřina Neumannová were neck-and-neck coming into the stadium, but Šmigun was the quickest through the last straight and won by 1.9 seconds. Russia's Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova took bronze.

In 2014, the Estonian Olympic Committee was notified by the IOC that one of Šmigun's samples from the 2006 Turin Games had been retested with a positive result. On 24 October 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency Athletes' Commission stated that Šmigun faces a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing before the end of October. If Šmigun were to be stripped of her gold, Kateřina Neumannová of Czech Republic could be elevated to gold in the 15 km pursuit event.^[1]

Results

The pursuit consisted of a 7.5 kilometre section raced in the classical style, followed by a 7.5 kilometre portion raced freestyle. In between, the sections, each skier took time (approximately 30 seconds) to 'pit', changing their skis.^[2]

Rank	Name	Country	Time
1	Kristina Šmigun	Estonia	42:48.7
2	Kateřina Neumannová	Czech Republic	42:50.6
3	Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova	Russia	43:03.2
4	Kristin Størmer Steira	Norway	43:06.8
5	Gabriella Paruzzi	Italy	43:18.9
6	Beckie Scott	Canada	43:20.6
7	Olga Savialova	Russia	43:23.7
8	Justyna Kowalczyk	Poland	43:25.6
9	Julija Tchepalova	Russia	43:39.5
10	Hilde G. Pedersen	Norway	43:40.5
11	Petra Majdič	Slovenia	43:41.7
12	Svetlana Malahova-Shishkina	Kazakhstan	44:00.0
13	Riitta Liisa Lassila	Finland	44:06.1
14	Valentina Shevchenko	Ukraine	44:13.6
15	Britta Norgren	Sweden	44:18.0
16	Sara Renner	Canada	44:30.9
17	Sabina Valbusa	Italy	44:44.7
18	Claudia Kuenzel	Germany	44:48.1
19	Kristin Murer Stemland	Norway	44:59.2
20	Karine Philippot	France	45:06.5
21	Wang Chunli	China	45:09.6
22	Antonella Confortola	Italy	45:11.9
23	Ivana Janečková	Czech Republic	45:33.5
24	Natascia Leonardi Cortesi	Switzerland	45:34.3
25	Elena Kolomina	Kazakhstan	45:44.1
26	Vita Jakimchuk	Ukraine	45:48.1
27	Li Hongxue	China	45:56.4
28	Stefanie Boehler	Germany	45:56.9
29	Helena Balatkova Erbenova	Czech Republic	45:57.0
30	Sumiko Yokoyama	Japan	45:58.6
31	Elin Ek	Sweden	46:02.7
32	Liu Yuanyuan	China	46:18.5
33	Elina Hietamaeki	Finland	46:20.5
34	Kirsi Valimaa	Finland	46:25.6
35	Masako Ishida	Japan	46:37.7
36	Arianna Follis	Italy	46:40.9
37	Elena Burukhina	Russia	46:42.9
38	Chizuru Soneta	Japan	46:45.5
39	Maja Benedicic	Slovenia	46:51.1
40	Kateryna Grygorenko	Ukraine	46:55.2
41	Oxana Jatskaja	Kazakhstan	46:57.0
42	Clare-Louise Brumley	Australia	47:03.1
43	Alena Sannikova	Belarus	47:05.6
44	Ludmila Korolik Shablouskaya	Belarus	47:07.2
45	Tatjana Zavalij	Ukraine	47:18.7
46	Alena Prochazkova	Slovakia	47:45.2
47	Anna Karin Stromstedt	Sweden	47:51.3
48	Rebecca Dussault	United States	47:53.7
49	Ekaterina Rudakova Bulauka	Belarus	48:09.2
50	Yevgeniya Voloshenko	Kazakhstan	48:17.2
51	Olga Vasiljonok	Belarus	48:20.4
52	Manuela Henkel	Germany	48:21.8
53	Irina Terentjeva	Lithuania	48:33.7
54	Milaine Theriault	Canada	48:38.9
55	Lindsey Weier	United States	48:45.0
56	Abby Larson	United States	48:47.5
57	Lee Chae-Won	South Korea	49:01.2
58	Xu Yinghui	China	49:47.3
59	Monika Gyorgy	Romania	50:15.3
60	Chandra Crawford	Canada	50:35.4
61	Laia Aubert Torrents	Spain	50:41.3
62	Lindsey Williams	United States	50:49.7
63	Laura Orgue	Spain	51:16.5
64	Maja Kezele	Croatia	51:36.3
65	Marit Bjørgen	Norway	DNF
65	Kelime Aydin	Turkey	DNF
65	Branka Kuzeljevc	Serbia and Montenegro	DNF

References

1. Butler, Nick (24 Oct 2016). "Šmigun-Vähi facing CAS hearing after "positive" retest at Turin 2006". INSIDETHEGAMES.BIZ. Dunsar Media Company Limited. Retrieved 2016-10-24.
2. "Torino 2006 Official Report - Cross Country Skiing" (PDF). Torino Organizing Committee. LA84 Foundation. March 2009. Retrieved Jun 11, 2009.