# Cross-country skiing at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's sprint

The men's sprint cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was held on 22 February at Pragelato.
Vasily Rochev was the defending world champion at this event, but he won in the classical style. The last free style sprint at the World Championships was won by Thobias Fredriksson in 2003, while Tor Arne Hetland was defending Olympic champion. Swede Björn Lind won the two most recent World Cup events, and also won the Olympic race, beating Frenchman Roddy Darragon to the line. Darragon won France's first cross-country skiing medal in the history of the Olympics, while Sweden took the bronze through Thobias Fredriksson.

## Results
### Qualifying

Eighty skiers completed the 1.3 kilometre course in the qualifying portion of the event, with the top thirty advancing to the quarterfinals.
| Rank | Name | Country | Time | Notes |
| 1 | Björn Lind | Sweden | 2:13.53 | Q |
| 2 | Andrew Newell | United States | 2:14.79 | Q |
| 3 | Johan Kjølstad | Norway | 2:15.11 | Q |
| 4 | Vasily Rochev | Russia | 2:16.19 | Q |
| 5 | Cristian Zorzi | Italy | 2:16.23 | Q |
| 6 | Mikael Östberg | Sweden | 2:16.24 | Q |
| 7 | Trond Iversen | Norway | 2:16.25 | Q |
| 8 | Loris Frasnelli | Italy | 2:16.30 | Q |
| 9 | Peter Larsson | Sweden | 2:16.62 | Q |
| 10 | Roddy Darragon | France | 2:16.76 | Q |
| 11 | Renato Pasini | Italy | 2:16.87 | Q |
| 12 | Ola Vigen Hattestad | Norway | 2:17.26 | Q |
| 13 | Yuichi Onda | Japan | 2:17.53 | Q |
| 14 | Anti Saarepuu | Estonia | 2:17:75 | Q |
| 15 | Tor Arne Hetland | Norway | 2:17.91 | Q |
| 16 | Chris Cook | United States | 2:18.46 | Q |
| 17 | Freddy Schwienbacher | Italy | 2:18.59 | Q |
| 18 | Yevgeniy Koschevoy | Kazakhstan | 2:18.88 | Q |
| 19 | Thobias Fredriksson | Sweden | 2:18.90 | Q |
| 20 | Martin Koukal | Czech Republic | 2:19.39 | Q |
| 21 | Dušan Kožíšek | Czech Republic | 2:19.64 | Q |
| 22 | Keijo Kurttila | Finland | 2:19.94 | Q |
| 23 | Janusz Krężelok | Poland | 2:20.04 | Q |
| 24 | Harald Wurm | Austria | 2:20.11 | Q |
| 25 | Martin Stockinger | Austria | 2:20.18 | Q |
| 26 | Lauri Pyykönen | Finland | 2:20.21 | Q |
| 27 | Ivan Alypov | Russia | 2:20.21 | Q |
| 28 | Sergey Novikov | Russia | 2:20.29 | Q |
| 29 | Lefteris Fafalis | Greece | 2:20.33 | Q |
| 30 | Christoph Eigenmann | Switzerland | 2:20.46 | Q |
| 31 | Drew Goldsack | Canada | 2:20.62 | |
| 32 | Sean Crooks | Canada | 2:20.70 | |
| 33 | Maciej Kreczmer | Poland | 2:20.83 | |
| 34 | Pavel Korostelev | Russia | 2:21.00 | |
| 35 | Nikolay Chebotko | Kazakhstan | 2:21.23 | |
| 36 | Torin Koos | United States | 2:21.47 | |
| 37 | Devon Kershaw | Canada | 2:21.49 | |
| 38 | Peeter Kümmel | Estonia | 2:21.60 | |
| 39 | Nejc Brodar | Slovenia | 2:21.94 | |
| 40 | Ivan Bilosyuk | Ukraine | 2:21.97 | |
| 41 | Priit Narusk | Estonia | 2:22.19 | |
| 42 | Vitaly Martsyv | Ukraine | 2:22.30 | |
| 43 | Shunsuke Komamura | Japan | 2:22.38 | |
| 44 | Zoltan Tagscherer | Hungary | 2:22.69 | |
| 45 | Yevgeni Safonov | Kazakhstan | 2:22.99 | |
| 46 | Lars Flora | United States | 2:23.02 | |
| 47 | Phil Widmer | Canada | 2:23.79 | |
| 48 | Zhang Chengye | China | 2:24.18 | |
| 49 | Martin Otcenas | Slovakia | 2:24.77 | |
| 50 | Oļegs Maļuhins | Latvia | 2:24.88 | |
| 51 | Paul Murray | Australia | 2:25.29 | |
| 52 | Alexander Lasutkin | Belarus | 2:25.79 | |
| 53 | Tian Ye | China | 2:25.85 | |
| 54 | Aivar Rehemaa | Estonia | 2:26.09 | |
| 55 | Sergey Cherepanov | Kazakhstan | 2:26.48 | |
| 56 | Joze Mehle | Slovenia | 2:27.02 | |
| 57 | Oliver Kraas | South Africa | 2:27.68 | |
| 58 | Zhang Qing | China | 2:27.90 | |
| 59 | Aleksej Novoselskij | Lithuania | 2:28.04 | |
| 60 | Damir Jurcevic | Croatia | 2:28.21 | |
| 61 | Sami Jauhojärvi | Finland | 2:28.42 | |
| 62 | Mikhail Gumenyak | Ukraine | 2:28.72 | |
| 63 | Park Byung Joo | South Korea | 2:28.85 | |
| 64 | Muhammet Kızılarslan | Turkey | 2:28.94 | |
| 65 | Zsolt Antal | Romania | 2:29.40 | |
| 66 | Olexandr Putsko | Ukraine | 2:30.99 | |
| 67 | Sabahattin Oglago | Turkey | 2:31.10 | |
| 68 | Valts Eiduks | Latvia | 2:31.25 | |
| 69 | Mihai Galiceanu | Romania | 2:31.43 | |
| 70 | Chen Haibin | China | 2:32.01 | |
| 71 | Ivan Bariakov | Bulgaria | 2:32.18 | |
| 72 | Intars Spalviņš | Latvia | 2:32.26 | |
| 73 | Denis Klobucar | Croatia | 2:33.10 | |
| 74 | Olegs Andrejevs | Latvia | 2:33.23 | |
| 75 | Alen Abramovic | Croatia | 2:34.61 | |
| 76 | Jung Eui Myung | South Korea | 2:35.39 | |
| 77 | Ilie Bria | Moldova | 2:42.30 | |
| 78 | Bahadur Gupta | India | 2:43.30 | |
| 79 | Hovhannes Sargsyan | Armenia | 2:47.68 | |
| 80 | Edmond Khachatryan | Armenia | 2:49.98 | |

### Quarterfinals

There were five quarterfinal races, each with six skiers. The top two in each heat advanced to the semifinals.

#### Quarterfinal 1

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Björn Lind (SWE) | 2:21.5 | Q |
| 2 | 10 | Roddy Darragon (FRA) | 2:21.9 | Q |
| 3 | 20 | Martin Koukal (CZE) | 2:23.5 | |
| 4 | 11 | Renato Pasini (ITA) | 2:23.7 | |
| 5 | 21 | Dušan Kožíšek (CZE) | 2:24.5 | |
| 6 | 30 | Christoph Eigenmann (SUI) | 2:25.6 | |

#### Quarterfinal 2

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 17 | Freddy Schwienbacher (ITA) | 2:20.4 | Q |
| 2 | 14 | Anti Saarepuu (EST) | 2:20.7 | Q |
| 3 | 4 | Vasily Rochev (RUS) | 2:22.0 | |
| 4 | 7 | Trond Iversen (NOR) | 2:22.5 | |
| 5 | 24 | Harald Wurm (AUT) | 2:23.4 | |
| 6 | 27 | Ivan Alypov (RUS) | 2:24.7 | |

#### Quarterfinal 3

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 5 | Cristian Zorzi (ITA) | 2:25.9 | Q |
| 2 | 15 | Tor Arne Hetland (NOR) | 2:26.1 | Q |
| 3 | 6 | Mikael Östberg (SWE) | 2:26.7 | |
| 4 | 25 | Martin Stockinger (AUT) | 2:27.1 | |
| 5 | 16 | Chris Cook (USA) | 2:27.9 | |
| 6 | 26 | Lauri Pyykönen (FIN) | 2:28.1 | |

#### Quarterfinal 4

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 12 | Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) | 2:23.1 | Q |
| 2 | 19 | Thobias Fredriksson (SWE) | 2:23.2 | Q |
| 3 | 9 | Peter Larsson (SWE) | 2:23.3 | |
| 4 | 2 | Andrew Newell (USA) | 2:24.3 | |
| 5 | 22 | Keijo Kurttila (FIN) | 2:25.1 | |
| 6 | 29 | Lefteris Fafalis (GRE) | 2:26.7 | |

#### Quarterfinal 5

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 3 | Johan Kjølstad (NOR) | 2:20.2 | Q |
| 2 | 8 | Loris Frasnelli (ITA) | 2:20.4 | Q |
| 3 | 18 | Yevgeniy Koschevoy (KAZ) | 2:20.7 | |
| 4 | 23 | Janusz Krężelok (POL) | 2:21.6 | |
| 5 | 28 | Sergei Novikov (RUS) | 2:21.9 | |
| 6 | 13 | Yuichi Onda (JPN) | 2:22.3 | |

### Semifinals

There were two semifinal races, each with five skiers. The top two in each semifinal advanced to the A Final, to compete for the top four places, while the third and fourth placed finishers advanced to the B Final, for places five through eight.

#### Semifinal 1

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 1 | Björn Lind (SWE) | 2:19.6 | Q |
| 2 | 10 | Roddy Darragon (FRA) | 2:19.9 | Q |
| 3 | 17 | Freddy Schwienbacher (ITA) | 2:22.8 | |
| 4 | 14 | Anti Saarepuu (EST) | 2:34.8 | |
| 5 | 15 | Tor Arne Hetland (NOR) | 2:43.2 | |

#### Semifinal 2

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result | Notes |
| 1 | 19 | Thobias Fredriksson (SWE) | 2:25.9 | Q |
| 2 | 5 | Cristian Zorzi (ITA) | 2:26.1 | Q |
| 3 | 8 | Loris Frasnelli (ITA) | 2:26.8 | |
| 4 | 3 | Johan Kjølstad (NOR) | 2:27.1 | |
| 5 | 12 | Ola Vigen Hattestad (NOR) | 2:29.0 | |

### Finals

Björn Lind finished 0.6 seconds ahead of Roddy Darragon to win the Olympic gold medal in the cross-country sprint.

#### Final A

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result |
| | 1 | Björn Lind (SWE) | 2:26.5 |
| | 10 | Roddy Darragon (FRA) | 2:27.1 |
| | 19 | Thobias Fredriksson (SWE) | 2:27.8 |
| 4 | 5 | Cristian Zorzi (ITA) | 2:31.7 |

#### Final B

| Rank | Seed | Athlete | Result |
| 5 | 17 | Freddy Schwienbacher (ITA) | 2:23.9 |
| 6 | 8 | Loris Frasnelli (ITA) | 2:25.2 |
| 7 | 3 | Johan Kjølstad (NOR) | 2:25.6 |
| 8 | 14 | Anti Saarepuu (EST) | 2:27.9 |