Virpi Katriina Sarasvuo (née Kuitunen, born 20 May 1976) is a Finnish former cross-country skier who competed from 1995 to 2010. She won a bronze medal in the team sprint event (with

Aino-Kaisa Saarinen Aino-Kaisa Saarinen (born 1 February 1979) is a retired Finnish cross-country skier who competed in the World Cup between 1998 and 2018. With 354 individual World Cup starts, Saarinen is the current record holder for both men and women, with St ...

) 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 ...

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 ...

and earned her best individual finish of fifth in the individual sprint event in those same games. Four years later in

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 ...

, Kuitunen won another bronze, this time in the 4 × 5 km relay. Kuitunen has eight medals at the

FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships is a biennial nordic skiing event organized by the International Ski Federation (FIS). The World Championships was started in 1925 for men and opened for women's participation in 1954. World Championship eve ...

with six golds (2001: 5 km + 5 km combined pursuit, 2007: Team sprint, with

Riitta-Liisa Roponen Riitta-Liisa Roponen (née Lassila, born 6 May 1978) is a Finnish cross-country skier who has competed since 1998. Career She won a bronze in the 4 × 5 km relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Roponen also won two team sprint me ...

, 30 km, & 4 × 5 km; 2009: Team sprint, 4 × 5 km), one silver (2005: 30 km), one bronze (2007: Individual sprint). She also has thirty-four additional individual victories at various levels of various distances since 2000. Kuitunen won the first ever

Tour de Ski Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed ...

competition for women in 2006–07, winning over

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

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 ...

by 1:17.5. She also won the overall 2006–07 Cross-Country Skiing World Cup, as well as the sprint World Cup the same season. In the season 2007–08 Kuitunen won the overall again. Because of Kuitunen's successes in cross-country skiing in 2007, she was awarded Finnish Sportswoman of the Year. Kuitunen also won the Tour de Ski in 2008–09. Virpi Kuitunen married

Jari Sarasvuo Jari Sarasvuo (born ''Jari Heinonen''; 12 June 1965, in Turku) is the founder, chief owner and CEO of Trainers' House, a Finnish company that arranges training and lectures particularly for marketing topics. Sarasvuo has worked as an editor a ...

on 16 July 2010.

Doping controversy

At the

2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 took place February 15–25, 2001 in Lahti, Finland for a record sixth time, previous events being held in 1926, 1938, 1958, 1978 and 1989. These championships also saw the most event changes since the 1 ...

Lahti Lahti (; sv, Lahtis) is a city and municipality in Finland. It is the capital of the region of Päijänne Tavastia (Päijät-Häme) and its growing region is one of the main economic hubs of Finland. Lahti is situated on a bay at the southern e ...

, Kuitunen was disqualified when she tested positive for

hydroxyethyl starch Hydroxyethyl starch (HES/HAES), sold under the brand name Voluven among others, is a nonionic starch derivative, used as a volume expander in intravenous therapy. The use of HES on critically ill patients is associated with an increased risk of ...

, a banned

blood plasma Blood plasma is a light amber-colored liquid component of blood in which blood cells are absent, but contains proteins and other constituents of whole blood in suspension. It makes up about 55% of the body's total blood volume. It is the intr ...

expander. This forced her to relinquish her silver medal earned in the 4 × 5 km and serve a two-year suspension that would not end until the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

* 2 medals – (2 bronze)

World Championships

* 8 medals – (6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze) :a. Cancelled due to extremely cold weather.

World Cup

Season titles

* 5 titles – (2 overall, 2 distance, 1 sprint)

Season standings

Individual podiums

* 27 victories – (21 , 6 ) * 52 podiums – (44 , 8 )

Team podiums

* 4 victories – (4 ) * 16 podiums – (13 , 3 )

Overall record

:a. Classification is made according to FIS classification. :b. Includes individual and mass start races. :c. Includes handicap start, pursuit and double pursuit races. :d. Incomplete due to lack of appropriate sources prior to 2001. :e. Did not finish the race (DNF). :f. Withdrawn from 2009–10 Tour de Ski. Note: Until 1999 World Championships, World Championship races are part of the World Cup. Hence results from 1999 World Championships races are included in the World Cup overall record.

References

*
Tour de Virpi report
– Accessed 11 January 2007.

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarasvuo, Virpi 1976 births Living people People from Kangasniemi Cross-country skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Doping cases in cross-country skiing Finnish female cross-country skiers Finnish sportspeople in doping cases Olympic cross-country skiers of Finland Olympic bronze medalists for Finland Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Cross-Country World Cup champions Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Tour de Ski winners Tour de Ski skiers Sportspeople from South Savo