FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001
 Official logo for the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001. | |
| Host city | Lahti, Finland |
|---|---|
| Events | 18 |
| Opening ceremony | 15 February |
| Closing ceremony | 25 February |
| Main venue | Salpausselkä |
| Website | Lahti2001.fi |
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 took place February 15–25, 2001 in Lahti, Finland for a record sixth time, previous events being held in 1926, 1938, 1958, 1978 and 1989. These championships also saw the most event changes since the 1950s with the 5 km women and 10 km men's events being discontinued, the 10 km women and 15 km men's events return to their normal status for the first time since the 1991 championships, the debut of a combined pursuit as a separate category (5 km + 5 km for women, 10 km + 10 km for men), the addition of the individual sprint race for both genders, and the debut of the ski jumping team normal hill event. Extremely cold weather (−23 °C (−9 °F)) cancelled the women's 30 km event. The biggest controversy occurred when a doping scandal hit the host nation of Finland, resulting in six disqualifications. This would serve as a prelude to further doping cases in cross country skiing at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City the following year.
Men's cross country
1 km individual sprint
February 21. 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold |  Tor Arne Hetland (NOR) |
|
| Silver |  Cristian Zorzi (ITA) |
|
| Bronze | Håvard Solbakken (NOR) |
15 km classical
February 15, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold |  Per Elofsson (SWE) |
39:26.0 |
| Silver | Mathias Fredriksson (SWE) |
39:42.5 |
| Bronze | Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset (NOR) |
39:43.3 |
Finnish skier Jari Isometsä finished fourth,but was disqualified for using plasma expanders.
10 km + 10 km combined pursuit
February 17, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Per Elofsson (SWE) |
47:15.5 |
| Silver |  Johann Mühlegg (ESP) |
47:42.0 |
| Bronze |  Vitaly Denisov (RUS) |
47:49.5 |
Finland's Jari Isometsä finished second, but was disqualified for using of plasma expanders.
30 km classical
February 19, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold |  Andrus Veerpalu (EST) |
1:14:17.9 |
| Silver | Frode Estil (NOR) |
1:14:18.1 |
| Bronze | Mikhail Ivanov (RUS) |
1:14:49.1 |
50 km freestyle
February 25, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Johann Mühlegg (ESP) |
2:05:27.2 |
| Silver |  René Sommerfeldt (GER) |
2:07:23.4 |
| Bronze | Sergey Kriyanin (RUS) |
2:07:28.4 |
4 × 10 km relay
February 22, 2001
| Medal | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Norway (Frode Estil, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Thomas Alsgaard, Tor Arne Hetland) |
1:36:42.0 |
| Silver | Sweden (Urban Lindgren, Mathias Fredriksson, Magnus Ingesson, Per Elofsson) |
1:37:24.7 |
| Bronze | Germany (Jens Filbrich, Andreas Schlütter, Ron Spanuth, René Sommerfeldt) |
1:37:30.0 |
The Finnish team finished first, but was disqualified when Janne Immonen,Mika Myllylä and Harri Kirvesniemi tested positive for doping.
Women's cross country
1 km individual sprint
February 21, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold |  Pirjo Manninen (FIN) |
|
| Silver | Kati Sundqvist (FIN) |
|
| Bronze | Yuliya Chepalova (RUS) |
10 km classical
February 20, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Bente Skari (NOR) |
26:55.5 |
| Silver | Olga Danilova (RUS) |
27:08.4 |
| Bronze | Larisa Lazutina (RUS) |
27:27.0 |
5 km + 5 km combined pursuit
February 18, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Virpi Kuitunen (FIN) |
28:06.1 |
| Silver | Larisa Lazutina (RUS) |
28:08.9 |
| Bronze | Olga Danilova (RUS) |
28:09.3 |
15 km classical
February 15, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Bente Skari (NOR) |
43:54.8 |
| Silver | Olga Danilova (RUS) |
44:02.5 |
| Bronze | Kaisa Varis (FIN) |
44:57.5 |
4 × 5 km relay
February 23, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Russia (Olga Danilova, Larisa Lazutina, Yuliya Chepalova, Nina Gavrilyuk) |
53:01.6 |
| Silver | Norway (Anita Moen, Bente Skari, Elin Nilsen, Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen) |
54:01.9 |
| Bronze | Italy (Gabriella Paruzzi, Sabina Valbusa, Stefania Belmondo, Cristina Paluselli) |
54:23.3 |
The Finnish relay team finished second, but was disqualified when Milla Jauho and Virpi Kuitunen were tested positive for doping.
Men's Nordic combined
7.5 km sprint
February 24, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Marco Baacke (GER) |
19:40.2 |
| Silver | Samppa Lajunen (FIN) |
19:46.5 |
| Bronze | Ronny Ackermann (GER) |
19:50.0 |
15 km Individual Gundersen
February 15, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
| Gold | Bjarte Engen Vik (NOR) |
39:26.7 |
| Silver | Samppa Lajunen (FIN) |
40:31.3 |
| Bronze |  Felix Gottwald (AUT) |
40:37.0 |
Vik becomes the first repeat world champion in this event since Oddbjørn Hagen did it in 1934 and 1935.
4 × 5 km team
February 20, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Norway (Kenneth Bråten, Sverre Rotevatn, Bjarte Engen Vik, Kristian Hammer) |
48:54.1 |
| Silver | Austria (Christoph Eugen, Mario Stecher, David Kreiner, Felix Gottwald) |
49:05.0 |
| Bronze | Finland (Jari Mantila, Hannu Manninen, Jaakko Tallus, Samppa Lajunen) |
49:23.6 |
Men's ski jumping
Individual normal hill
February 23, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Points |
| Gold |  Adam Małysz (POL) |
246.0 |
| Silver | Martin Schmitt (GER) |
233.0 |
| Bronze | Martin Höllwarth (AUT) |
223.0 |
Individual large hill
February 19, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Points |
| Gold | Martin Schmitt (GER) |
276.3 |
| Silver | Adam Małysz (POL) |
273.5 |
| Bronze | Janne Ahonen (FIN) |
267.4 |
Team normal hill
February 25, 2001
| Medal | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Austria (Wolfgang Loitzl, Andreas Goldberger, Stefan Horngacher, Martin Höllwarth) |
953.5 |
| Silver | Finland (Matti Hautamäki, Risto Jussilainen, Ville Kantee, Janne Ahonen) |
951.5 |
| Bronze | Germany (Sven Hannawald, Michael Uhrmann, Alexander Herr, Martin Schmitt) |
911.5 |
Team large hill
February 21, 2001
| Medal | Athlete | Points |
|---|---|---|
| Gold | Germany (Sven Hannawald, Michael Uhrmann, Alexander Herr, Martin Schmitt) |
939.8 |
| Silver | Finland (Risto Jussilainen, Jani Soininen, Ville Kantee, Janne Ahonen) |
900.2 |
| Bronze | Austria (Andreas Goldberger, Wolfgang Loitzl, Martin Höllwarth, Stefan Horngacher) |
880.2 |
Doping controversy
The six Finnish skiers affected, referred to in several cross country skiing publications[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8] as the "Lahti Six" were four men (Janne Immonen, Jari Isometsä, Harri Kirvesniemi, and Mika Myllylä) and two women (Milla Jauho and Virpi Kuitunen). All six tested positive for hydroxyethyl starch, a banned blood plasma expander. Kirvesniemi retired while the others served two year suspensions. Kuitunen was the last of the "Lahti Six" competitive until her 2010 retirement, having earned a two bronzes in the Winter Olympics (2006: Team sprint, 2010: 4 × 5 km) and seven medals (five golds, one silver, and one bronze) at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships after her 2001 doping suspension.
This incident, along with the doping disqualifications of Olga Danilova, Larisa Lazutina, and Johann Mühlegg at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and Kaisa Varis at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 in Val di Fiemme, would force the International Olympic Committee and the International Ski Federation to tighten up their drug testing procedures. Doping concerns were also strongly mentioned at the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Medal table
Medal winners by nation.
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Norway | 6 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| 2 | Germany | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| 3 | Finland | 2 | 5 | 3 | 10 |
| 4 | Sweden | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 |
| 5 | Russia | 1 | 3 | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | Austria | 1 | 1 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Poland | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Spain | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| 9 | Estonia | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Italy | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Total | 18 | 18 | 18 | 54 |
References
- ↑ Amplified Content, LLC. "AXCS: Cross Country Skiing at". Xcskiworld.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ↑ Amplified Content, LLC. "AXCS: Cross Country Skiing at". Xcskiworld.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ↑ "I am looking for new challenges". Cirkus.ee. March 1, 2001. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ↑ "Doping Disaster for Finnish Ski Team". Sportsci.org. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ↑ "HS Sport 21.11.2003 – Former skiing head coach to be charged with smuggling and fraud". .hs.fi. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- ↑ FasterSkier.com Archived September 2, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Ski County USA . org Archived September 29, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Amplified Content, LLC (February 24, 2002). "AXCS: Cross Country Skiing at". Xcskiworld.com. Retrieved December 4, 2011.
- FIS 2001 Cross country results
- FIS 2001 Nordic combined results
- FIS 2001 Ski jumping results
- March 14, 2003 announcement of Finnish skier Kaisa Varis's drug test failure. Details on 2001 skiers.
External links
Media related to FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 at Wikimedia Commons
