Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Women's team sprint


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

;Semifinal 2
RankCountryAthletesTimeNotes
1Ella Gjømle
Marit Bjørgen
17:14.4Q
2Olga Rocheva
Alyona Sidko
17:32.3Q
3Anna Dahlberg
Lina Andersson
17:33.5Q
4Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle
Viola Bauer
17:34.7Q
5Wendy Kay Wagner
Kikkan Randall
17:51.4Q
6Helena Erbenová
Kamila Rajdlová
18:11.6
7Wang Chunli
Jiang Chunli
18:18.4
8Piret 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.
RankCountryAthletesTime
Anna Dahlberg
Lina Andersson
16:36.9
Sara Renner
Beckie Scott
16:37.5
Aino-Kaisa Saarinen
Virpi Kuitunen
16:39.2
4Ella Gjømle
Marit Bjørgen
16:48.1
5Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle
Viola Bauer
17:03.5
6Olga Rocheva
Alyona Sidko
17:08.5
7Arianna Follis
Gabriella Paruzzi
17:24.8
8Madoka Natsumi
Nobuko Fukuda
17:27.6
9Oxana Yatskaya
Elena Kolomina
17:42.8
10Wendy Kay Wagner
Kikkan Randall
18:06.9