Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Women's 15 kilometre freestyle mass start
# Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Women's 15 kilometre freestyle mass start

The Women's 15 kilometre freestyle mass start cross-country skiing competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, was held on 9 February at Soldier Hollow.

All 60 skiers began at once in a mass start. 2002 was the first time that a mass start was held in the Olympics.

## The Race

This was the first Winter Olympic cross-country event skied entirely as a mass start race. Previously, this event was held at an interval start. It was also the first cross-country event in Salt Lake City, starting shortly before the men raced 30 km. The 2001 World Champion was Bente Skari of Norway elected not to contest this race, even though she had been the dominant female cross-country racer over the past five years.

The early leader in the race was Russian Yuliya Chepalova, but by 9 km, Italy's Stefania Belmondo, the 1999 World Champion in the event, moved ahead, until her pole broke at 10.5 km. She dropped back to 10th place, but trailed the leader, Larisa Lazutina, by only 10 seconds. Belmondo was given a pole by a French official but it was very long, so she struggled for over 500 metres until an Italian coach gave her one of her own poles. She then powered ahead, caught Lazutina and won a narrow victory by 1.8 seconds. Behind them, Czech skier Katerina Neumannová came in for the bronze medal. But Lazutina would not keep her silver medal. After the pursuit race, held six days later, she was found to have tested positive for darpopoietin, an erythropoietin analogue, and was disqualified in late 2003. Neumannová was moved up to silver medal, and Chepalova would get the bronze. Chepalova failed drug tests later in her career, but here Olympic results were left unaffected.

## Results

The race was started at 09:00.

| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Time | Deficit |
| - | - | - | - | - | - |
| | 3 | Stefania Belmondo | Italy | 39:54.4 | |
| | 4 | Kateřina Neumannová | Czech Republic | 40:01.3 | +6.9 |
| | 1 | Yuliya Chepalova | Russia | 40:02.7 | +8.3 |
| 4 | 10 | Kaisa Varis | Finland | 40:04.1 | +9.7 |
| 5 | 12 | Svetlana Nageykina | Belarus | 40:17.9 | +23.5 |
| 6 | 7 | Gabriella Paruzzi | Italy | 40:25.7 | +31.3 |
| 7 | 8 | Kristina Šmigun | Estonia | 40:33.6 | +39.2 |
| 8 | 20 | Karine Philippot | France | 40:38.6 | +44.2 |
| 9 | 18 | Iryna Terelya | Ukraine | 40:39.4 | +45.0 |
| 10 | 9 | Sabina Valbusa | Italy | 40:48.3 | +53.9 |
| 11 | 6 | Olga Zavyalova | Russia | 40:53.3 | +58.9 |
| 12 | 14 | Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle | Germany | 40:57.6 | +1:03.2 |
| 13 | 11 | Yelena Burukhina | Russia | 41:01.1 | +1:06.7 |
| 14 | 5 | Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen | Norway | 41:47.8 | +1:53.4 |
| 15 | 34 | Natascia Leonardi Cortesi | Switzerland | 41:56.3 | +2:01.9 |
| 16 | 30 | Antonella Confortola | Italy | 41:57.8 | +2:03.4 |
| 17 | 24 | Vera Zyatikova | Belarus | 42:04.5 | +2:10.1 |
| 18 | 27 | Nataliya Zyatikova | Belarus | 42:04.5 | +2:10.1 |
| 19 | 21 | Riitta-Liisa Roponen | Finland | 42:14.3 | +2:19.9 |
| 20 | 43 | Kateřina Hanušová | Czech Republic | 42:15.7 | +2:21.3 |
| 21 | 15 | Valentyna Shevchenko | Ukraine | 42:16.0 | +2:21.6 |
| 22 | 29 | Sumiko Yokoyama | Japan | 42:16.2 | +2:21.8 |
| 23 | 44 | Katrin Šmigun | Estonia | 42:25.6 | +2:31.2 |
| 24 | 39 | Annick Pierrel | France | 42:26.7 | +2:32.3 |
| 25 | 33 | Oxana Yatskaya | Kazakhstan | 42:46.0 | +2:51.6 |
| 26 | 31 | Claudia Nystad | Germany | 42:49.5 | +2:55.1 |
| 27 | 32 | Kanoko Goto | Japan | 42:50.4 | +2:56.0 |
| 28 | 13 | Vibeke Skofterud | Norway | 42:50.9 | +2:56.5 |
| 29 | 28 | Nina Kemppel | United States | 42:53.1 | +2:58.7 |
| 30 | 37 | Anna-Carin Olofsson | Sweden | 42:53.8 | +2:59.4 |
| 31 | 38 | Brigitte Albrecht | Switzerland | 42:54.4 | +3:00.0 |
| 32 | 35 | Nataša Lačen | Slovenia | 43:05.0 | +3:10.6 |
| 33 | 26 | Svetlana Shishkina | Kazakhstan | 43:05.1 | +3:10.7 |
| 34 | 36 | Amanda Fortier | Canada | 43:38.7 | +3:44.3 |
| 35 | 58 | Anke Reschwamm Schulze | Germany | 43:53.1 | +3:58.7 |
| 36 | 22 | Anna Dahlberg | Sweden | 43:53.7 | +3:59.3 |
| 37 | 41 | Jaime Fortier | Canada | 43:54.0 | +3:59.6 |
| 38 | 25 | Elin Ek | Sweden | 43:55.3 | +4:00.9 |
| 39 | 23 | Jenny Karin Olsson | Sweden | 43:57.7 | +4:03.3 |
| 40 | 49 | Nataliya Sviridova-Kalinovskaya | Belarus | 44:09.2 | +4:14.8 |
| 41 | 46 | Helena Erbenová | Czech Republic | 44:17.8 | +4:23.4 |
| 42 | 42 | Midori Furusawa | Japan | 44:41.8 | +4:47.4 |
| 43 | 50 | Barbara Jones | United States | 45:04.3 | +5:09.9 |
| 44 | 45 | Vita Yakymchuk | Ukraine | 45:26.7 | +5:32.3 |
| 45 | 53 | Darya Starostina | Kazakhstan | 45:28.8 | +5:34.4 |
| 46 | 47 | Lee Chae-won | South Korea | 45:37.9 | +5:43.5 |
| 47 | 56 | Hou Yuxia | China | 45:42.2 | +5:47.8 |
| 48 | 52 | Irina Terentjeva | Lithuania | 45:45.4 | +5:51.0 |
| 49 | 55 | Nataliya Isachenko | Kazakhstan | 45:51.4 | +5:57.0 |
| 50 | 17 | Marit Bjørgen | Norway | 47:07.4 | +7:13.0 |
| 51 | 48 | Ilona Bublová | Czech Republic | 47:31.8 | +7:37.4 |
| 52 | 54 | Luan Zhengrong | China | 47:43.7 | +7:49.3 |
| 53 | 59 | Kristina Joder | United States | 48:06.0 | +8:11.6 |
| 54 | 57 | Maja Kezele | Croatia | 48:43.1 | +8:48.7 |
| | 16 | Maj Helen Sorkmo | Norway | Did not finish | Did not finish |
| | 19 | Annmari Viljanmaa | Finland | Did not finish | Did not finish |
| | 40 | Nobuko Fukuda | Japan | Did not finish | Did not finish |
| | 60 | Elena Gorohova | Moldova | Did not finish | Did not finish |
| | 51 | Margarit Nikolyan | Armenia | Disqualified | Disqualified |
| DSQ | 2 | Larisa Lazutina | Russia | 39:56.2 | +1.8 |
