Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics

The cross-country skiing events at the 2002 Winter Olympics were marred by drug problems. The winners of three races were disqualified after blood tests showed that three skiers had overly high red blood cell counts indicating the use of darbepoetin, a drug used to treat anemia. At the time, the drug was not specifically listed in the IOC's list of banned substances, but the Olympic rules generally prohibit doping of any kind, in accordance with its charter. After two years and several lawsuits in Olympic and Swiss courts, the skiers in question (Johann Mühlegg of Spain, and Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova of Russia) were stripped of all their medals from the 2002 Games.

See the external links below for the official IOC press releases containing detailed information of the doping cases and their resolution, including initial, intermediate, and final amended results. This article gives the final medalists as decided on by the IOC in early 2004.

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway (NOR)	5	2	4	11
2	Italy (ITA)	2	2	2	6
3	Russia (RUS)	2	1	1	4
4	Germany (GER)	1	2	2	5
5	Estonia (EST)	1	1	1	3
6	Austria (AUT)	1	1	0	2
7	Canada (CAN)	1	0	0	1
8	Czech Republic (CZE)	0	2	0	2
9	Switzerland (SUI)	0	0	1	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	1	1

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
2 x 10 kilometre pursuit details	Frode Estil Norway (NOR)  Thomas Alsgaard Norway (NOR)	49:48.9			Per Elofsson Sweden (SWE)	49:52.9
15 kilometre classical details	Andrus Veerpalu Estonia (EST)	37:07.4	Frode Estil Norway (NOR)	37:43.4	Jaak Mae Estonia (EST)	37:50.8
30 kilometre freestyle mass start details	Christian Hoffmann Austria (AUT)	1:11:31.0	Mikhail Botvinov Austria (AUT)	1:11:32.3	Kristen Skjeldal Norway (NOR)	1:11:42.7
50 kilometre classical details	Mikhail Ivanov Russia (RUS)	2:06:20.8	Andrus Veerpalu Estonia (EST)	2:06:44.5	Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset Norway (NOR)	2:08:41.5
4 x 10 kilometre relay details	Norway (NOR) Anders Aukland Frode Estil Kristen Skjeldal Thomas Alsgaard	1:32.45.4	Italy (ITA) Fabio Maj Giorgio Di Centa Pietro Piller Cottrer Cristian Zorzi	1:32:53.8	Germany (GER) Jens Filbrich Andreas Schlütter Tobias Angerer René Sommerfeldt	1:33:34.5
Sprint details	Tor Arne Hetland Norway (NOR)	2:56.9	Peter Schlickenrieder Germany (GER)	2:57.0	Cristian Zorzi Italy (ITA)	2:57.2

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
2 x 5 kilometre pursuit details	Beckie Scott Canada (CAN)	25:09.9	Kateřina Neumannová Czech Republic (CZE)	25:10.0	Viola Bauer Germany (GER)	25:11.1
10 kilometre classical details	Bente Skari Norway (NOR)	28:05.6	Yuliya Chepalova Russia (RUS)	28:09.9	Stefania Belmondo Italy (ITA)	28:45.8
15 kilometre freestyle mass start details	Stefania Belmondo Italy (ITA)	39:54.4	Kateřina Neumannová Czech Republic (CZE)	40:01.3	Yuliya Chepalova Russia (RUS)	40:02.7
30 kilometre classical details	Gabriella Paruzzi Italy (ITA)	1:30:57.1	Stefania Belmondo Italy (ITA)	1:31:01.6	Bente Skari Norway (NOR)	1:31:36.3
4 x 5 kilometre relay details	Germany (GER) Manuela Henkel Viola Bauer Claudia Künzel Evi Sachenbacher	49:30.6	Norway (NOR) Marit Bjørgen Bente Skari Hilde G. Pedersen Anita Moen	49:31.9	Switzerland (SUI) Andrea Huber Laurence Rochat Brigitte Albrecht Loretan Natascia Leonardi Cortesi	50:03.6
Sprint details	Yuliya Chepalova Russia (RUS)	3:10.6	Evi Sachenbacher Germany (GER)	3:12.2	Anita Moen Norway (NOR)	3:12.7

See also

• Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Paralympics

References

• Official Olympic Report

External links

• IOC Announces Annulment of the Results of Larissa Lazutina from the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games and Amends Results Accordingly – IOC press release, 29 June 2003
• IOC Executive Board disqualifies Muehlegg and Danilova from the Salt Lake City Games – IOC press release, 28 February 2004