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

Men's team sprint
at the XX Olympic Winter Games
Venue Pragelato
Dates 14 February
Competitors 50 from 25 nations
Winning time 17:02.9
Medalists
1st, gold medalist(s)  Sweden Thobias Fredriksson & Björn Lind
2nd, silver medalist(s)  Norway Jens Arne Svartedal & Tor Arne Hetland
3rd, bronze medalist(s)  Russia Ivan Alypov & Vassili Rotchev
2010 →
1st, gold medalist(s)  Sweden Thobias Fredriksson & Björn Lind
2nd, silver medalist(s)  Norway Jens Arne Svartedal & Tor Arne Hetland
3rd, bronze medalist(s)  Russia Ivan Alypov & Vassili Rotchev

The Men's team sprint cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was held on 14 February, at Pragelato. This was the first time the team sprint was contested in the Winter Olympics. Each race featured teams of two, with each skier completing 3 laps of a 1325-metre course.

Norway, with Tore Ruud Hofstad and Tor Arne Hetland, had won the competition at the 2005 Nordic skiing World Championship, the only time it had been skied in the World Championship prior to the Turin games, but that was in free technique. The most recent team sprint event in classic technique had been in Canmore, Canada, on 18 December 2004. Jens Arne Svartedal and Eldar Rønning won that race for Norway's first team. However, despite this good Norwegian record, it was the Sweden's Thobias Fredriksson and Björn Lind who pipped Norway to the title.

Fifteen teams were entered in the two semifinals, with the top five in each advancing to the final.

The top three teams separated themselves from the pack fairly easily, with Sweden finishing just 0.6 seconds ahead of Norway to take the gold medal.


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