# Cross-country skiing at the 2002 Winter Olympics

The cross-country skiing events at the 2002 Winter Olympics were marred by drug problems. The winners of three races were disqualified after blood tests showed that three skiers had overly high red blood cell counts indicating the use of darbepoetin, a drug used to treat anemia. At the time, the drug was not specifically listed in the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) list of banned substances, but the Olympic rules generally prohibit doping of any kind, in accordance with its charter. After two years and several lawsuits in Olympic and Swiss courts, the skiers in question (Johann Mühlegg of Spain, and Larissa Lazutina and Olga Danilova of Russia) were stripped of all their medals from the 2002 Games.
See the external links below for the official IOC press releases containing detailed information of the doping cases and their resolution, including initial, intermediate, and final amended results. This article gives the final medalists as decided on by the IOC in early 2004.

## Medal summary
### Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Norway | 5 | 2 | 4 | 11 |
| 2 | Italy | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | Russia | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 4 | Germany | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| 5 | Estonia | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Austria | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Canada | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Czech Republic | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Sweden | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | Switzerland | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (10 entries) | Totals (10 entries) | 13 | 11 | 12 | 36 |

### Men's events

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 2 × 10 km pursuit details | Frode Estil Norway Thomas Alsgaard Norway | 49:48.9 | Not awarded | | Per Elofsson Sweden | 49:52.9 |
| 15 km classical details | Andrus Veerpalu Estonia | 37:07.4 | Frode Estil Norway | 37:43.4 | Jaak Mae Estonia | 37:50.8 |
| 30 km freestyle mass start details | Christian Hoffmann Austria | 1:11:31.0 | Mikhail Botvinov Austria | 1:11:32.3 | Kristen Skjeldal Norway | 1:11:42.7 |
| 50 km classical details | Mikhail Ivanov Russia | 2:06:20.8 | Andrus Veerpalu Estonia | 2:06:44.5 | Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset Norway | 2:08:41.5 |
| 4 × 10 km relay details | Norway Anders Aukland Frode Estil Kristen Skjeldal Thomas Alsgaard | 1:32.45.4 | Italy Fabio Maj Giorgio Di Centa Pietro Piller Cottrer Cristian Zorzi | 1:32:45.8 | Germany Jens Filbrich Andreas Schlütter Tobias Angerer René Sommerfeldt | 1:33:34.5 |
| Sprint details | Tor Arne Hetland Norway | 2:56.9 | Peter Schlickenrieder Germany | 2:57.0 | Cristian Zorzi Italy | 2:57.2 |

### Women's events

| Event | Gold | Gold | Silver | Silver | Bronze | Bronze |
| 2 × 5 km pursuit details | Beckie Scott Canada | 25:09.9 | Kateřina Neumannová Czech Republic | 25:10.0 | Viola Bauer Germany | 25:11.1 |
| 10 km classical details | Bente Skari Norway | 28:05.6 | Yuliya Chepalova Russia | 28:09.9 | Stefania Belmondo Italy | 28:45.8 |
| 15 km freestyle mass start details | Stefania Belmondo Italy | 39:54.4 | Kateřina Neumannová Czech Republic | 40:01.3 | Yuliya Chepalova Russia | 40:02.7 |
| 30 km classical details | Gabriella Paruzzi Italy | 1:30:57.1 | Stefania Belmondo Italy | 1:31:01.6 | Bente Skari Norway | 1:31:36.3 |
| 4 × 5 km relay details | Germany Manuela Henkel Viola Bauer Claudia Künzel Evi Sachenbacher | 49:30.6 | Norway Marit Bjørgen Bente Skari Hilde G. Pedersen Anita Moen | 49:31.9 | Switzerland Andrea Huber Laurence Rochat Brigitte Albrecht-Loretan Natascia Leonardi Cortesi | 50:03.6 |
| Sprint details | Yuliya Chepalova Russia | 3:10.6 | Evi Sachenbacher Germany | 3:12.2 | Anita Moen Norway | 3:12.7 |

### Participating NOCs

Forty-four nations competed in the cross-country skiing events at Salt Lake City.
* Armenia
* Austria
* Belarus
* Brazil
* Bulgaria
* Cameroon
* Canada
* China
* Costa Rica
* Croatia
* Czech Republic
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Iran
* Ireland
* Italy
* Japan
* Kazakhstan
* Kenya
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Macedonia
* Moldova
* Mongolia
* Nepal
* Norway
* Poland
* Romania
* Russia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* South Korea
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Thailand
* Turkey
* Ukraine
* United States