Virpi Kuitunen

Skier infobox|name= Virpi Kuitunen


fullname = Virpi Katriina Kuitunen
nickname =
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1976|5|20
cityofbirth = Kangasniemi
countryofbirth = Finland
cityofdeath =
countryofdeath =
height = 174 cm
club = Kangasniemen Kalske
skis = Rossignol
seasons = 1997-
wins = 10
additionalpodiums = 16
totalpodiums = 26

Virpi Kuitunen (born May 20, 1976 in Kangasniemi) is a Finnish cross country skier who has competed since 1995. She won a bronze medal in the team sprint event (with Aino Kaisa Saarinen) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and earned her best individual finish of 5th in the individual sprint event in those same games.

Kuitunen has six medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships with four golds (2001: 5 km + 5 km combined pursuit, 2007: Team sprint, with Riitta-Liisa Roponen, 4 x 5 km & 30 km), one silver (2005: 30 km), one bronze (2007: Indvidiual sprint). She also has thirty-four additional individual victories at various levels of various distances since 2000.

Kuitunen won the first ever Tour de Ski competition for women in 2006–07, winning over Norway's Marit Bjørgen by 1:17.5. She also won the overall 2006-07 Cross-Country Skiing World Cup, as well as the sprint World Cup the same season.In the season 2007-08 Virpi won the overall again.

Because of Kuitunen's successes in cross country skiing in 2007, she was awarded Finnish Sportswoman of the Year.

Doping controversy

At the 2001 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti, Kuitunen was disqualified when she tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch, a banned blood plasma expander. This forced her to relinquish her silver medal earned in the 4 x 5 km and serve a two-year suspension that would not end until the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.

References

* [http://www.virpikuitunen.net Official website]
*FIS|S=CC|ID=32862
* [http://www.tour-de-ski.com/fr/news/latest-news.html?actu_id=79 Tour de Virpi report] - Accessed January 11, 2007.