2006 Turin Winter Olympics Blog

Cross-Country Skiing, Women’s 30km Freestyle

Gold Katerina Neumannova Czech Republic
Silver Yulia Tchepalova Russia
Bronze Justyna Kowalczyk Poland

Cross-Country Skiing, Women’s Sprint

Gold Chandra Crawford Canada
Silver Claudia Kuenzel Germany
Bronze Alena Sidko Russia

Cross-Country Skiing, Men’s Sprint

Gold Bjoern Lind Sweden
Silver Roddy Darragon France
Bronze Thobias Fredriksson Sweden

2 Man Bobsled

Gold Andre Lange, Kevin Kuske Germany
Silver Pierre Lueders, Lascelles Brown Canada
Bronze Martin Annen, Beat Hefti Switzerland

Speedskating— 1000m women

Gold Marianne Timmer Netherlands
Silver Cindy Klassen Canada
Bronze Anni Friesinger Germany

Cross-Country Men’s 4×10 km relay

Gold Italy
Silver Germany
Bronze Sweden

Gold Andrus Veerpalu Estonia
Silver Lukas Bauer Czech Republic
Bronze Tobias Angerer Germany

Wow, is Estonia good at cross country, or what?

Biathlon: women’s 7.5 km sprint

Gold Florence Baverel-Robert France
Silver Anna Carin Olofsson Sweden
Bronze Lilia Efremova Ukraine

Cross country: women’s 10 km classical

Gold Kristina Smigun Estonia
Silver Marit Bjorgen Norway
Bronze Hilde G. Pedersen Norway

Cross-Country Skiing: Men’s Team Sprint

Gold Thobias Fredriksson Bjoern, Lind Sweden
Silver Jens Arne Svartedal, Tor Arne Hetland Norway
Bronze Ivan Alypov, Vassili Rotchev Russia

Cross-Country Skiing: Women’s Team Sprint

Gold Anna Dahlberg, Lina Andersson Sweden
Silver Sara Renner, Beckie Scott Canada
Bronze Aino Kaisa Saarinen, Virpi Kuitunen Finland

Gold Eugeni Dementiev Russia
Silver Frode Estil Norway
Bronze Pietro Piller Cottrer Italy

Another exciting event for the Italians! This was a really cool race, if you didn’t get a chance to watch it. Frode Estil, the defending Olympic champion, was involved in a crash in the first few minutes of the race. He limped along with a broken ski until he was able to replace it and was at the very back of the pack. The pack could have taken off and left him, but two of his team members skied to the front and slowed down the momentum, allowing Estil to stay in the hunt. Silver was truly a great comeback for him.

Gold Kristina Smigun Estonia
Silver Katerina Neumannova Czech Republic
Bronze Evgenia Medvedeva-Abruzova Russia

By the way, this was the first gold medal by a woman athlete from Estonia.

Eight cross-country skiers, including two Americans, have been suspended for five days, pending new blood tests, after their initial blood tests revealed high hemoglobin levels. This is not considered a disciplinary suspension, but a health suspension. Initially, it looks like none of the skiers will miss their scheduled events.

Generally, this kind of problem is caused by acclimation to high altitudes or improper hydration. While there have been cases of athletes using illicit transfusions or other means to achieve high hemoglobin levels, this is unlikely to be the case here. It is much more likely that the athletes simply did not drink enough water in their recent travelling and settling in to the athlete’s village.

Hemoglobin is the part of a red blood cell that carries oxygen from the lungs to all cells. Because it increases the oxygen in the muscles, it can be considered a performance enhancer.

UPDATE: Four more cross-country skiers received five-day suspensions Friday for testing positive for high levels of hemoglobin in their blood, bringing the total to 12 in two days.

Six years ago, Kris Freeman was told he would have to leave the sport that he had loved since he was a child. Freeman was diagnosed with diabetes and told that he would have to quit cross country skiing. He rejected that recommendation and has been skiing competitively the whole time since his diagnosis. He placed 14th in one-day pursuit and helped the U.S. team finish 5th, overall.

Next month, he will again be representing the United States in the Turin Olympics. If he medals, it will be the first time since 1976.

In addition to pursuing training as a world class athlete, Freeman has become a national spokesperson for diabetes awareness.

Be sure to read the story where he tells about wrestling an electrolyte drink away from a Russian when his own drink was dropped by one of his coaches.

I think the developing theme of our blog is “human interest stories of the Olympics.” Maybe that’s because that’s the main thing that seems to make the news two months out. Maybe it’s because that’s what’s interesting to me. Maybe it’s because it makes for a more exciting blog entry than “Bloom makes Olympic squad”.

So, in that vein, I bring you the blog about the Ethiopian in the Winter Olympics. Robel Teklemariam, 31, will be skiing for Ethiopia as the first Ethiopian-born citizen to represent the African nation at a Winter Olympics. He hopes to compete in Nordic and Alpine events. (Somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I think that translates to downhill and cross-country, for those of us, like Teklemariam, who are from non-skiing locations in the world.)

If you think it’s easy being the first person in your country to compete in a Winter Olympics, think again. You can’t just sign up and say you’re going to be skiing for your country. First, you have to get your country to agree to allow you to represent them. Then you have to get the international committee governing your sport to recognize your country’s right to send a team in your chosen Olympic event. Teklemariam had to establish an Ethiopian skiing federation.

But all his hard work will pay off. He’ll get to carry his country’s flag at the opening and closing ceremonies. Said Teklemariam, “”I guess if I’m the only one, I’ll be carrying the flag.”

For a picture and more information, visit this blog.