Cross Country Skiing at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Games:

After a disappointing showing in the 1968 games with no gold medals, the Soviet women came back strongly at the 1970 World Championships in Vysoke Tatra, winning five out of six medals in the individual races in addition to the relay. The 10 km race was the opening race for women in Sapporo, and Alevtina Olyunina was reigning World Champion on the distance. At the halfway point her teammate Galina Kulakova had an 8-second lead over Olyunina, with the Finnish veteran of 34 years, Marjatta Kajosmaa another 3.5 seconds behind. Norway’s Aslaug Dahl, a 22-year-old skier from the Sami municipality of Nesseby in the far northeastern part of Norway, was close behind Kajosmaa. The third Soviet skier, Lyubov Mukhachova, was also involved in the medal fight, reaching the halfway point only half a second behind Dahl.

In the last part of the race Kulakova increased her lead and won by a clear margin, over 36 seconds. The fight for the other medals was very close. Olyunina could barely hold her second position, and Kajosmaa was able to split the three Soviet ladies, winning the bronze medal 2 seconds behind Olyunina and 2 seconds ahead of Mukhachova. Dahl faded over the last half of the race and ended as sixth.