The Women's 30 kilometre freestyle

cross-country skiing Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

competition at 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 t ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, 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 ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, was held on 24 February, at

Pragelato Pragelato (also ''Pragelà''; Vivaro-Alpine: ''Prajalats'', French: Prajalats) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Turin in the Italian region Piedmont, located about west of Turin, in the upper Val Chisone. The name ''Pr ...

Marit Bjørgen Marit Bjørgen (born 21 March 1980) is a former Norwegian cross-country skier. She is ranked first in the all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings with 114 individual victories. Bjørgen is also the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country W ...

was the defending World Champion, while the last 30 kilometre free style (with individual start) in the World Cup was won by

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 ...

on 28 February 2004. The event had never been held 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 ...

at the Olympics, but the last 30 km (a classical individual start event) was won by

Gabriella Paruzzi Gabriella Paruzzi (born 21 June 1969 in Udine) is a retired Italian cross-country skier who competed from 1991 to 2006 and formerly skied with the G.S. Forestale. She skied in World Cup events, and won the Women's Overall World Cup in 2004. Eq ...

of Italy. Veteran

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 ...

won her second medal at the Torino Olympics. Her daughter, Luci, greeted the exhausted Neumannová after she won. Newcomer

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 ...

won the first ever Olympic medal in cross-country skiing for Poland, for either men or women.

Results

The race was a 'mass start', with all 62 skiers starting at the same time. 11 skiers failed to finish the race.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics - Women's 30 kilometre freestyle Women's cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics Women's 30 kilometre cross-country skiing at the Winter Olympics