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Cross Country Skiing at the 1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Games:

Women's 10 kilometres

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Host City: Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
Venue(s): Snow Stadium, Cortina d'Ampezzo
Date Started: January 28, 1956
Date Finished: January 28, 1956

Gold: URS Lyubov Kozyreva-Baranova
Silver: URS Radiya Yeroshina
Bronze: SWE Sonja Edström-Ruthström

Summary

The 10 km. for ladies was first contested at the Oslo Games in 1952, and four years later the starting field had doubled from 20 skiers to 40 in Cortina. The event appeared on the FIS World Championship program in 1954, with Soviet skier Lyubov Kozyreva winning ahead of the Finns Siiri Rantanen and Mirja Hietamies. Kozyreva had also won the pre-Olympic trial at Cortina in 1955.

No official intermediate times were taken during the event, and the first starter on the Soviet team, Anna Kaaleste, with start number 7, took an early lead at the finish with a time of 40:29. The next Soviet skier to reach the finish, start number 15 Radiya Yeroshina, ended her race in excellent style with 38:16, over two minutes faster than the current leader. Alevtina Kolchina, married to double bronze medalist Pavel Kolchin, finished a few minutes later and was half a minute behind Yeroshina in second place, and the next to come was Kozyreva. The World Champion had to struggle hard to beat Yeroshina with a scant five second margin. From one of the latest starting numbers, the 25-year-old Swede Sonja Edström was able to split the leading Soviet trio and secured a surprising bronze medal, only 12 seconds behind the Olympic Champion Kozyreva. Kozyreva won the first gold medal by a Soviet woman at the Olympics.

Final Standings

Rank Athlete Age Team NOC Medal T
1 Lyubov Kozyreva-Baranova 26 Soviet Union URS Gold 38:11
2 Radiya Yeroshina 25 Soviet Union URS Silver 38:16
3 Sonja Edström-Ruthström 25 Sweden SWE Bronze 38:23
4 Alevtina Kolchina 25 Soviet Union URS 38:46
5 Siiri Rantanen 31 Finland FIN 39:40
6 Mirja Hietamies 25 Finland FIN 40:18
7 Irma Johansson 23 Sweden SWE 40:20
8 Sirkka Polkunen 28 Finland FIN 40:25
9 Anna Kaaleste 26 Soviet Union URS 40:29
10 Kjelfrid Brusveen 29 Norway NOR 40:38
11 Rakel Wahl 34 Norway NOR 40:49
12 Sanna Kiero 25 Finland FIN 40:52
13 Anna-Lisa Eriksson 27 Sweden SWE 40:56
14T Barbro Martinsson 20 Sweden SWE 41:04
14T Eva Lauermanová 24 Czechoslovakia TCH 41:04
16 Maria Gąsienica Bukowa-Kowalska 20 Poland POL 41:09
17 Józefa Czerniawska-Pęksa 18 Poland POL 41:28
18 Zofia Krzeptowska 21 Poland POL 41:37
19 Libuše Patočková 22 Czechoslovakia TCH 41:52
20T Sonnhilde Hausschild-Kallus 20 Germany GER 42:22
20T Else Amann 32 Germany GER 42:22
22 Gina Regland-Sigstad 28 Norway NOR 42:42
23 Ildegarda Taffra 21 Italy ITA 42:51
24 Helena Gąsienica Daniel 21 Poland POL 43:09
25 Olga Krasilová 30 Czechoslovakia TCH 43:10
26 Elfriede Spiegelhauer-Uhlig 21 Germany GER 43:15
27 Ingrid Wigernæs 27 Norway NOR 43:40
28 Eva Paulusová-Benešová 18 Czechoslovakia TCH 43:42
29 Rita Czech-Blasl 21 Germany GER 43:51
30 Rita Bottero 18 Italy ITA 44:03
31 Fides Romanin 21 Italy ITA 44:17
32 Amalija Belaj 16 Yugoslavia YUG 45:32
33 Mara Rekar 18 Yugoslavia YUG 45:36
34 Mariya Dimova 26 Bulgaria BUL 45:52
35 Nada Birko-Kustec 25 Yugoslavia YUG 46:03
36 Biserka Vodenlič 19 Yugoslavia YUG 46:28
37 Anita Parmesani 22 Italy ITA 47:37
38 Iuliana Simon 21 Romania ROU 49:32
39 Ştefania Botcariu 20 Romania ROU 49:37
AC Margareta Arvay 18 Romania ROU DQ