The women's 30 kilometre classical cross-country skiing competition at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gret ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

was held on 27 February at

Whistler Olympic Park The Whistler Olympic Park is the location of the Nordic events facilities for the 2010 Winter Olympics and is located in the Madeley Creek basin in the Callaghan Valley, west of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. The facility hosted the biathlon ...

Whistler, British Columbia Whistler ( Lillooet/Ucwalmícwts: Cwitima, ; Squamish/Sḵwx̱wú7mesh: Sḵwiḵw, ) is a resort municipality in Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in the southern Pacific Ranges of the Coast Moun ...

at 11:45 PST.

Summary

The 30 kilometre has been skated as a

mass start {{refimprove, date=February 2018 Mass start is a format of starting in some racing sports such as long-distance running in sport of athletics, speed skating, long-distance cross-country skiing and biathlon. There are usually many competitors in ...

event at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

since 2005 and since the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

Kateřina Neumannová Kateřina Neumannová () (born 15 February 1973) is a Czech retired cross-country skier. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 2006 Winter Olympics, in the 30 km freestyle event. She is one of five cross country skiers to have competed at s ...

of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

was the defending

Olympic champion This article includes lists of all Olympic medalists since 1896, organized by each Olympic sport or discipline, and also by Olympiad. Medalist with most medals by sport Summer Olympic sports Winter Olympic sports A. Including military patrol e ...

though that event was held in the freestyle technique. She retired after the 2006-07 season and later chaired the organizing committee for the 2009 world championships.

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

Justyna Kowalczyk Justyna Maria Kowalczyk-Tekieli (born 19 January 1983) is a Polish cross-country skier who has been competing since 2000. Kowalczyk is a double Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier to win the Tour de Ski four ...

, the defending Olympic bronze medallist, was the reigning

world champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

though that was also in the freestyle technique.FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 Cross-country skiing 28 February 2009 women's 30 km freestyle mass start results.
- accessed 3 November 2009. The last

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

event in the 30 km classical took place in

Trondheim Trondheim ( , , ; sma, Tråante), historically Kaupangen, Nidaros and Trondhjem (), is a city and municipality in Trøndelag county, Norway. As of 2020, it had a population of 205,332, was the third most populous municipality in Norway, and ...

, Norway on 14 March 2009 and was won by

Petra Majdič Petra Majdič (born 22 December 1979) is a Slovenian former cross-country skier. Her best results came in classic style races. She won twenty-four World Cup races, twenty in sprint races, but she also won a marathon (30 km race) in Trondh ...

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. The race was a mass start event where all of the skiers start at the same time.

Results

Majdič, the bronze medallist in the sprint event at these games who also won the last event in this format prior to this race, did not participate in the wake of crashing down a bank, into an unprotected deep gorge and landing on ice and rocks, resulting in five broken ribs and a

pneumothorax A pneumothorax is an abnormal collection of air in the pleural space between the lung and the chest wall. Symptoms typically include sudden onset of sharp, one-sided chest pain and shortness of breath. In a minority of cases, a one-way valve i ...

prior to the start of qualifying for the sprint event ten days earlier. This race also matched up the last four world champions in this event (Zavyalova: 2003, Bjørgen: 2005, Kuitunen: 2007, and Kowalczyk: 2009.). At the 7.1 km mark, the top three leaders were Størmer Steira (who finished eighth), Jatskaja (who finished 19th), and Kalla (who finished sixth). Kowalczyk, the defending world champion, led at the halfway mark, followed by Saarinen and Longa (who finished 12th). Bjørgen, the 2005 world champion in this event, held the lead at the 22.1 km mark, followed by Kowalczyk and Saarinen, who changed skis at the 25 km mark. Kowalczyk's finish over Bjørgen was the closest in Olympic history, edging out Neumannová's 1.4-second win over

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Yuliya Chepalova Yulia Anatolyevna Chepalova (russian: Ю́лия Анато́льевна Чепа́лова; born 23 December 1976 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Russian SFSR) is a former Russian cross-country skier. Early and current personal life Daughter of a cros ...

at the previous Olympics in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

. Kowalczyk is the first woman from Poland to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics and only the second overall, after

Wojciech Fortuna Wojciech Fortuna (born 6 August 1952) is a Polish former ski jumper who won the Olympic Gold Medal in the Large Hill at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo. In the Normal Hill he finished 6th. The Gold Medal was Poland's first - and the only ...

's victory in the ski jumping individual large hill event at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 ( ja, 札幌1972), was a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside Euro ...

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous cit ...

.Wallechinsky, David and Jaime Loucky (2009). "Ski Jumping: Large Hill Individual". In ''The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition''. London: Aurum Pres Limited. p. 264. Saarinen earned her first and only individual Winter Olympic medal. 2003 World champion Zavylova finished 23rd while 2007 World champion Kuitunen finished 14th.

References

External links

2010 Winter Olympics results:Ladies' 30 km, Mass Start Classic
from https://web.archive.org/web/20100222080013/http://www.vancouver2010.com/ retrieved 2010-02-26. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cross-country skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics - Women's 30 kilometre classical Women's cross-country skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics Women's 30 kilometre cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics