The Women's team sprint cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 14 February, at Pragelato. This was the first time the team sprint was contested in the Winter Olympics. Each race featured teams of two, with each skier completing 3 laps of a 1145 metre course.

This event had been held once previously at the World Championships, but then as a free technique event, which Hilde G. Pedersen and Marit Bjørgen won for Norway. The last classical style team sprint in the World Cup was held in Canmore on 18 December 2005 and won by Germany, with Manuela Henkel and Viola Bauer.

Results

Semifinals Eight teams were entered in the two semifinals, with the top five in each advancing to the final.

Semifinal 1 Rank Country Athletes Time Notes 1 Aino-Kaisa Saarinen Virpi Kuitunen 17:16.8 Q 2 Sara Renner Beckie Scott 17:19.3 Q 3 Arianna Follis Gabriella Paruzzi 17:32.6 Q 4 Madoka Natsumi Nobuko Fukuda 17:33.1 Q 5 Oxana Yatskaya Elena Kolomina 17:36.3 Q 6 Élodie Bourgeois Pin Aurélie Perrillat 17:54.5 7 Vesna Fabjan Maja Benedičič 18:53.5 8 Maryna Malets-Lisohor Tetyana Zavalij 19:14.3

Semifinal 2 Rank Country Athletes Time Notes 1 Ella Gjømle Marit Bjørgen 17:14.4 Q 2 Olga Rocheva Alyona Sidko 17:32.3 Q 3 Anna Dahlberg Lina Andersson 17:33.5 Q 4 Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle Viola Bauer 17:34.7 Q 5 Wendy Kay Wagner Kikkan Randall 17:51.4 Q 6 Helena Erbenová Kamila Rajdlová 18:11.6 7 Wang Chunli Jiang Chunli 18:18.4 8 Piret Pormeister Kaili Sirge 19:13.6

Final

The top three teams clearly separated themselves, with Sweden pulling away in the final metres to finish ahead of Canada and win the gold.

Rank Country Athletes Time Deficit Anna Dahlberg Lina Andersson 16:36.9 — Sara Renner Beckie Scott 16:37.5 +0.6 Aino-Kaisa Saarinen Virpi Kuitunen 16:39.2 +2.3 4 Ella Gjømle Marit Bjørgen 16:48.1 +11.2 5 Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle Viola Bauer 17:03.5 +26.6 6 Olga Rocheva Alyona Sidko 17:08.5 +31.6 7 Arianna Follis Gabriella Paruzzi 17:24.8 +47.9 8 Madoka Natsumi Nobuko Fukuda 17:27.6 +50.7 9 Oxana Yatskaya Elena Kolomina 17:42.8 +1:05.9 10 Wendy Kay Wagner Kikkan Randall 18:06.9 +1:30.0

References