10 kilometres (Classical), Women

The winner of the last three sprint World Cups, and the leader in 2005-06, was Norwegian Marit Bjørgen. She had also won the overall World Cup in 2004-05 and would do so again in 2005-06. She was expected to be challenged by 2005 World Champion Kateřina Neumannová. The leader at the first two checkpoints was Canadian Sara Renner, who had won a bronze medal in the sprint at the 2005 World Championships. But Renner dropped back by the final time check at 8.8 km, with the lead taken by Estonia’s Kristina Šmigun, who had already won a gold medal in Torino in the pursuit, with Neumannová second and Bjørgen third. Over the last 1,200 metres, Šmigun extended her lead and won the gold medal easily. Bjørgen also skied strongly, moving up to silver, while Neumannová dropped back to fifth, the bronze going to Norwegian Hilde Gjermundshaug-Pedersen. Šmigun was not a surprise. By the time of the Torino Olympics, she had already won 16 World Cup races, and six individual medals at the World Championships, including a gold in the 2003 pursuit.