10 kilometres (Classical), Women

The heavy favorite in this race was Norway’s Bente Skari-Martinsen. She was World Champion at this distance in 2001, at 15 km in 2001, and at 5 km in 1999. She had won the 1998-99 and 1999-2000 World Cup and would win it again in 2001-02, after placing second in 2000-01. She would also win the sprint World Cup in 2001-02, for the fifth consecutive season. But early in the race, Skari-Martinsen was well behind Russian Olga Danilova. Danilova led by over 15 seconds at 5.8 km, but Skari-Martinsen had closed to within 10 seconds at 8.7 km. And then she blasted to the finish, defeating Danilova to win by 2½ seconds, as expected, though it had not been easy. The bronze medal went to Danilova’s teammate Yuliya Chepalova, the 2000-01 World Cup champion. Fourth was another Russian, Larisa Lazutina.

But that podium didn’t last. Skari-Martinsen won the gold medal. But Danilova and Lazutina would eventually be disqualified when it was revealed they had tested positive for darpopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue. This was not revealed, however, until October 2003, for Danilova, and two months later for Lazutina. Chepalova was moved up to the silver medal, while fifth-place finisher Stefania Belmondo was awarded the bronze medal. In 2003 Skari-Martinsen would win the event at the World Championships.