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 qualifying was led by Canadian Beckie Scott. In the quarter-finals, the big news was the failure of the defending champion, Yuliya Chepalova, and the 2005 World Champion, Swede Emelie Öhrstig, who both failed to advance. The final consisted of Scott, German Claudia Künzel, runner-up at the 2003 Worlds, and fourth at the 2002 Winter Olympics; Russian Alyona Sidko, who had won a bronze in team sprint at the 2005 Worlds; and Candian Chandra Crawford, who had only moved up to the senior international level in 2006. But in the final, Crawford moved ahead early and won relatively easily for the sprint, with Künzel taking silver and Sidko the bronze.