Cross Country Skiing at the 1994 Lillehammer Winter Games:

This was the second time that men skied 10 kilometres as an individual event at the Winter Olympics. The short-distance race for men had previously been 15 kilometres, or 18 kilometres through 1952, but in 1992 it was changed to 10 km. The event had been won at the last two World Championships by Terje Langli (1991) and Sture Sivertsen (1993) but the favorites in the event were Bjørn Dæhlie and Vladimir Smirnov. Dæhlie had won the last two seasonal World Cups, and was fighting with Smirnov in the 1993-94 season, which would be won Smirnov, who had also won in 1990-91. Smirnov had also been second in 1992-93 and third in 1991-92. For a short race, Dæhlie won fairly comfortably, with an 18+ second lead over Smirnov, who took the silver medal. Smirnov started slowly, trailing the pace of Marco Albarello but had moved to second at the second checkpoint.

Albarello hung on for the bronze medal. He had won two silvers in Albertville and would add a gold in the relay in Lillehammer. Smirnov was in his third Winter Olympics, representing his third country, after the Soviet Union in 1988 and the Unified Team in 1992, he was now skiing for Kazakhstan. He had won three medals in Calgary, and would do likewise in Lillehammer, winning his only Olympic gold medal in the 50 km, and adding silver in the pursuit. At Nagano he would finish his Olympic career with a bronze in the pursuit. Dæhlie was, well, Dæhlie. He had won four medals and three golds in Albertville, would win four medals and two golds in Lillehammer, and would end his Olympic career with another four golds and three golds in Nagano. His 12 Olympic medals and eight gold medals are both records for the Winter Olympics through 2006.