Cross-country skiing at the 2010 Winter Olympics – Women's 15 kilometre pursuit
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Women's 15 kilometre pursuit at the XXI Olympic Winter Games | |||||||||||||
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Venue | Whistler Olympic Park | ||||||||||||
Dates | 19 February | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 68 from 25 nations | ||||||||||||
Winning time | 39:58.1 | ||||||||||||
Medalists | |||||||||||||
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The women's 7.5 kilometre + 7.5 kilometre double pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada was held on 19 February at Whistler Olympic Park in Whistler, British Columbia at 13:00 PST.[1]
The 15 km double pursuit format has been competed at the world championship level since 2005 and at the Winter Olympic level since 2006. Estonia's Kristina Šmigun-Vähi was the defending Olympic champion.[2] Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk was the defending world champion.[3] Kowalczyk also won the test event that took place at the Olympic venue on 17 January 2009.[4] The last World Cup event prior to the 2010 Games in this format took place on 23 January 2010 in Rybinsk, Russia and was won by Kowalczyk.[5]
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 takes time (approximately 30 seconds) to change skis and poles in a pit stop.