The Women's 15 kilometre pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 12 February, at Pragelato.
Background The defending Olympic gold medalist, Beckie Scott, and silver medalist Kateřina Neumannová both qualified for the event. The bronze medalist, Viola Bauer, did not qualify. Marit Bjørgen was the overall leader in the World Cup standings prior to the Olympics. Yuliya Chepalova was the 2005 world champion.
The race Kristina Šmigun and Kateřina Neumannová were neck-and-neck coming into the stadium, but Šmigun was the quickest through the last straight and won by 1.9 seconds. Russia's Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova took bronze.
In 2014, the Estonian Olympic Committee was notified by the IOC that one of Šmigun's samples from the 2006 Turin Games had been retested with a positive result. On 24 October 2016, the World Anti-Doping Agency Athletes' Commission stated that Šmigun faces a Court of Arbitration for Sport hearing before the end of October. If Šmigun were to be stripped of her gold, Kateřina Neumannová of Czech Republic could be elevated to gold in the 15 km pursuit event.
Results The pursuit consisted of a 7.5 kilometre section raced in the classical style, followed by a 7.5 kilometre portion raced freestyle. In between, the sections, each skier took time to 'pit', changing their skis.
Rank Bib Name Country 7.5 km classic Rank Pitstop 7.5 km free Rank Finish time Deficit 8 Kristina Šmigun 20:24.9 2 36.5 21:47.2 1 42:48.7 3 Kateřina Neumannová 20:25.6 3 33.0 21:51.9 2 42:50.6 17 Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova 20:28.4 11 34.5 22:00.1 3 43:03.2 4 14 Kristin Størmer Steira 20:26.4 5 31.2 22:09.1 5 43:06.8 5 19 Gabriella Paruzzi 20:26.5 6 33.9 22:19.0 6 43:18.9 6 4 Beckie Scott 20:26.7 7 32.7 22:21.1 8 43:20.6 7 23 Olga Zavyalova 20:28.3 10 36.1 22:19.3 7 43:23.7 8 20 Justyna Kowalczyk 20:27.4 8 36.2 22:22.0 9 43:25.6 9 2 Yuliya Chepalova 21:01.6 21 33.9 22:03.9 4 43:39.5 10 5 Hilde G. Pedersen 20:26.0 4 34.1 22:40.4 10 43:40.5 11 9 Petra Majdič 20:23.9 1 31.0 22:46.7 13 43:41.7 12 12 Svetlana Malahova-Shishkina 20:40.8 15 34.2 22:44.9 12 44:00.0 +1:11.3 13 21 Riitta-Liisa Lassila 20:53.1 17 30.6 22:42.2 11 44:06.1 +1:17.4 14 7 Valentyna Shevchenko 20:37.0 13 35.6 23:00.9 14 44:13.6 +1:24.9 15 33 Britta Norgren 20:28.7 12 32.7 23:16.5 19 44:18.0 +1:29.3 16 10 Sara Renner 20:27.8 9 32.9 23:30.1 21 44:30.9 +1:42.2 17 13 Sabina Valbusa 20:52.9 16 39.6 23:12.1 16 44:44.7 +1:56.0 18 6 Claudia Künzel 21:04.9 24 36.1 23:07.0 15 44:48.1 +1:59.4 19 15 Kristin Mürer Stemland 20:38.3 14 33.7 23:47.1 25 44:59.2 +2:10.5 20 11 Karine Philippot 20:53.4 18 35.7 23:37.3 22 45:06.5 +2:17.8 21 34 Wang Chunli 20:54.7 19 34.4 23:40.4 23 45:09.6 +2:20.9 22 32 Antonella Confortola 21:13.9 27 44.8 23:13.1 18 45:11.9 +2:23.2 23 42 Ivana Janečková 21:14.7 28 34.6 23:44.2 24 45:33.5 +2:44.8 24 26 Natascia Leonardi Cortesi 21:00.9 20 37.8 23:55.5 28 45:34.3 +2:45.6 25 29 Elena Kolomina 21:04.4 23 38.8 24:00.8 30 45:44.1 +2:55.4 26 48 Vita Yakymchuk 21:58.1 39 37.1 23:12.8 17 45:48.1 +2:59.4 27 41 Li Hongxue 21:29.0 31 35.8 23:51.5 26 45:56.4 +3:07.7 28 16 Stefanie Böhler 21:08.5 25 36.2 24:12.0 35 45:56.9 +3:08.2 29 40 Helena Erbenová 21:30.6 32 34.5 23:51.8 27 45:57.0 +3:08.3 30 30 Sumiko Yokoyama 21:19.1 29 32.9 24:06.5 32 45:58.6 +3:09.9 31 18 Elin Ek 21:02.3 22 43.9 24:16.4 39 46:02.7 +3:14.0 32 67 Liu Yuanyuan 22:18.0 48 41.5 23:18.9 20 46:18.5 +3:29.8 33 31 Elina Hietamäki 21:47.7 35 36.1 23:56.6 29 46:20.5 +3:31.8 34 27 Kirsi Välimaa 21:08.7 26 40.1 24:36.7 46 46:25.6 +3:36.9 35 36 Masako Ishida 21:28.6 30 36.6 24:32.4 45 46:37.7 +3:49.0 36 22 Arianna Follis 21:40.1 33 36.8 24:24.0 41 46:40.9 +3:52.2 37 24 Yelena Burukhina 21:47.4 34 42.4 24:13.1 38 46:42.9 +3:54.2 38 43 Chizuru Soneta 21:59.2 40 36.3 24:09.9 34 46:45.5 +3:56.8 39 45 Maja Benedicic 22:01.6 42 40.6 24:08.8 33 46:51.1 +4:02.4 40 53 Kateryna Grygorenko 22:15.9 46 35.0 24:04.2 31 46:55.2 +4:06.5 41 25 Oxana Yatskaya 21:49.7 36 42.3 24:24.9 42 46:57.0 +4:08.3 42 52 Clare-Louise Brumley 21:54.9 38 38.1 24:30.0 44 47:03.1 +4:14.4 43 38 Alena Sannikova 22:16.5 47 36.7 24:12.3 36 47:05.6 +4:16.9 44 39 Ludmila Korolik Shablouskaya 22:09.3 44 44.8 24:13.0 37 47:07.2 +4:18.5 45 50 Tetyana Zavalíy 22:14.6 45 37.3 24:26.7 43 47:18.7 +4:30.0 46 49 Alena Procházková 21:53.5 37 40.2 25:11.4 51 47:45.2 +4:56.5 47 28 Anna-Karin Strömstedt 22:01.6 42 36.2 25:13.5 52 47:51.3 +5:02.6 48 60 Rebecca Dussault 22:30.4 53 39.0 24:44.2 47 47:53.7 +5:05.0 49 64 Ekaterina Rudakova Bulauka 23:06.2 58 42.5 24:20.4 40 48:09.2 +5:20.5 50 65 Yevgeniya Voloshenko 22:19.6 50 42.5 25:15.0 54 48:17.2 +5:28.5 51 44 Olga Vasiljonok 22:19.2 49 41.7 25:19.4 55 48:20.4 +5:31.7 52 35 Manuela Henkel 22:27.6 51 40.5 25:13.5 52 48:21.8 +5:33.1 53 37 Irina Terentjeva 23:01.3 56 36.9 24:55.4 49 48:33.7 +5:45.0 54 46 Milaine Thériault 22:01.2 41 41.1 25:56.5 58 48:38.9 +5:50.2 55 59 Lindsey Weier 22:30.0 52 42.2 25:32.6 56 48:45.0 +5:56.3 56 51 Abby Larson 23:19.2 60 39.4 24:48.8 48 48:47.5 +5:58.8 57 47 Lee Chae-Won 23:18.7 59 46.2 24:56.3 50 49:01.2 +6:12.5 58 61 Xu Yinghui 22:35.3 54 42.3 26:29.6 61 49:47.3 +6:58.6 59 62 Mónika György 23:02.2 57 36.9 26:36.1 62 50:15.3 +7:26.6 60 63 Chandra Crawford 22:35.8 55 43.6 27:15.8 64 50:35.4 +7:46.7 61 54 Laia Aubert Torrents 24:03.5 61 34.2 26:03.4 59 50:41.3 +7:52.6 62 55 Lindsay Williams 24:11.5 63 45.5 25:52.7 57 50:49.7 +8:01.0 63 58 Laura Orgué 24:13.0 64 42.0 26:21.4 60 51:16.5 +8:27.8 64 57 Maja Kezele 24:04.7 62 45.0 26:46.4 63 51:36.3 +8:47.6 1 Marit Bjørgen 56 Kelime Aydin 66 Branka Kuzeljević
References