Cross Country Skiing at the 2006 Torino Winter Games:

This was the second Olympic sprint competition, as it was first held in 2002 at Salt Lake City. The format was slightly different, however, In 2002, 16 skiiers qualified for four quarter-finals of four skiers each. But in Torino, 30 skiiers advanced to five quarter-finals of six racers, with two advancing in each quarter to two semi-finals of five skiers. The final was again contested by four skiers, two advancing from each semi. The defending champion was Tor-Arne Hetland and he was favored, having also won the 2001 World Championship, and a bronze medal in 2003 and silver in 2005 at the Worlds. The qualifying leader was Sweden’s Björn Lind, who had finished fourth, and last, in the 2002 Olympic final. In the semi-final he met Hetland, but Hetland fell while attempting to pass Lind, and did not qualify.

The final was highly competitive. It had Lind, Cristian Zorzi, the 2002 bronze medalist, and Thobias Fredriksson, the 2003 World Champion and bronze medalist at the 2005 Worlds, along with one surprise, France’s Roddy Darragon, who had qualified only 10th and had little international record of note. But it was Darragon who challenged Lind, as Zorzi struggled. Lind won by a length over Darragon with Fredriksson getting up for the bronze medal.