Cross Country Skiing at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games:

Some of the drama happened prior to the event itself when one of the favored skiers Petra Majdič (SLO), runner-up at the 2007 World Championships in the sprint, fell going down a bank and landed on some rocks on the morning of the event, suffering four broken ribs to put her entry in doubt. Nevertheless she competed, finishing 19th in the qualification heats, and then advancing to the final via the elimination rounds, albeit as a fastest loser from the semi-finals. The fastest qualifier was Marit Bjørgen (NOR) who had been favored to win gold medals at Torino in 2006 but had ended up with none. Here she qualified for the final, winning her elimination round heats with relative ease. The final itself started as a close contest between Bjørgen and Justyna Kowalczyk (POL) with Bjørgen pulling away in the last quarter of the course to finally win her first Olympic gold medal. A remarkable race by Majdič saw her win the bronze medal from Anna Dahlberg-Olsson (SWE), although Majdič was in such pain that she had difficulty walking after the race. This was the first ever medal for Slovenia in cross-country skiing. The 2009 World Sprint Champion, Arianna Follis of Italy, was in Vancouver but did not contest this event, as she specializes in freestyle and the sprint was held classically. Bjørgen was the star of women’s cross-coutnry in Vancouver, winning three gold medals and five medals in all. Because of her injuries, Majdič did not compete further in Vancouver.