Cross Country Skiing at the 2006 Torino Winter Games:

The event was changed again. In 2002 it was contested as 5 km classical followed by 5 km freestyle pursuit, but in 2006 both distances were increased to 7½ km. Also, while the event had previously been run with interval starts in the classical, it was now a mass start, a format that was first débuted internationally at the 2005 World Championships. The favorites were the gold and silver medalists from the 2005 World Championships, Russian Yuliya Chepalova and Norway’s Marit Bjørgen, along with the 2003 World Champion, Estonia’s Kristina Šmigun. The leader after the classical section was Slovenian Petra Majdič, but she was 13th in the freestyle pursuit, and placed 11th overall. The runner-up after classical was Šmigun, with Czech Kateřina Neumannová in third, but the margin between them was only 0.7 seconds. They would post the two best freestyle times with Šmigun edging out Neumannová for the gold medal by 1.9 seconds. The defending champion was Canada’s Beckie Scott, who took almost two years to win her gold medal because of drug disqualifications. She was seventh after classical, and briefly took the lead in the pursuit phase, but slowed near the end and placed sixth. The bronze medal went to Russia’s Yevgeniya Medvedeva, whose only previous international podium had come at the 2005 World Championships in the relay.