1997–98 FIS Cross-Country World Cup

The 1997–98 FIS Cross-Country World Cup was the 17th official World Cup season in cross-country skiing for men and women. The season began in Beitostølen, Norway, on 22 November 1997 and finished at Holmenkollen, Oslo, Norway, on 14 March 1998. Thomas Alsgaard of Norway won the overall men's cup,^[1] and Larisa Lazutina of Russia won the women's.^[2]

1997–98 FIS Cross-Country World Cup
Discipline	Men	Women
Overall	Thomas Alsgaard	Larisa Lazutina (2nd title)
Long Distance	Thomas Alsgaard	Larisa Lazutina
Sprint	Thomas Alsgaard	Bente Martinsen
Nations Cup	Norway	Russia
Nations Cup Overall	Norway
Competition
Locations	9 venues	9 venues
Individual	12 events	12 events
Relay/Team	4 events	4 events
←1996–97 1998–99→

Calendar

Men

C – Classic / F – Freestyle

WC	Date	Place	Discipline	Winner	Second	Third	Ref.
1	22 November 1997	Beitostølen	10 km C	Bjørn Dæhlie	Vladimir Smirnov	Erling Jevne	[3]
2	10 December 1997	Milano	Sprint F	Ari Palolahti	Thobias Fredriksson	Christian Hoffmann	[4]
3	13 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	10 km C	Bjørn Dæhlie	Sture Sivertsen	Vladimir Smirnov	[5]
4	14 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	15 km F Pursuit	Bjørn Dæhlie	Thomas Alsgaard	Mikhail Botvinov	[6]
5	16 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	15 km F	Fulvio Valbusa	Thomas Alsgaard	Bjørn Dæhlie	[7]
6	20 December 1997	Davos	30 km C	Bjørn Dæhlie	Thomas Alsgaard	Erling Jevne	[8]
7	3 January 1998	Kavgolovo	30 km F	Mika Myllylä	Thomas Alsgaard	Fabio Maj	[9]
8	8 January 1998	Ramsau	15 km C	Thomas Alsgaard	Mika Myllylä	Jari Isometsä	[10]
9	10 January 1998	Ramsau	30 km F	Thomas Alsgaard	Silvio Fauner	Mikhail Botvinov	[11]
1998 Winter Olympics (7–22 February)
10	8 March 1998	Lahti	30 km C	Vladimir Smirnov	Thomas Alsgaard	Frode Estil	[12]
11	11 March 1998	Falun	10 km F	Thomas Alsgaard	Mikhail Botvinov	Per Elofsson	[13]
12	14 March 1998	Oslo	50 km C	Alexey Prokurorov	Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset	Bjørn Dæhlie	[14]

Women

C – Classic / F – Freestyle

WC	Date	Place	Discipline	Winner	Second	Third	Ref.
1	22 November 1997	Beitostølen	5 km C	Larisa Lazutina	Bente Martinsen	Kateřina Neumannová	[15]
2	10 December 1997	Milano	Sprint F	Bente Martinsen	Trude Dybendahl	Anita Moen	[16]
3	13 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	5 km C	Bente Martinsen	Anita Moen	Larisa Lazutina	[17]
4	16 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	15 km F	Larisa Lazutina	Sabina Valbusa	Stefania Belmondo	[18]
5	20 December 1997	Davos	15 km C	Yelena Välbe	Svetlana Nageykina	Anita Moen	[19]
6	4 January 1998	Kavgolovo	10 km F	Yuliya Chepalova	Stefania Belmondo	Larisa Lazutina	[20]
7	8 January 1998	Ramsau	10 km C	Marit Mikkelsplass	Bente Martinsen	Kateřina Neumannová	[21]
8	9 January 1998	Ramsau	5 km C	Bente Martinsen	Larisa Lazutina	Kateřina Neumannová	[22]
9	11 January 1998	Ramsau	10 km F Pursuit	Stefania Belmondo	Larisa Lazutina	Marit Mikkelsplass	[23]
1998 Winter Olympics (7–22 February)
10	7 March 1998	Lahti	15 km F	Stefania Belmondo	Larisa Lazutina	Svetlana Nageykina	[24]
11	11 March 1998	Falun	5 km F	Larisa Lazutina	Stefania Belmondo	Yuliya Chepalova	[25]
12	14 March 1998	Oslo	30 km C	Larisa Lazutina	Svetlana Nageykina	Anita Moen	[26]

Men's team

WC	Date	Place	Discipline	Winner	Second	Third	Ref.
1	23 November 1997	Beitostølen	4 × 10 km relay C	Norway I Thomas Alsgaard Anders Eide Erling Jevne Bjørn Dæhlie	Finland Jari Isometsä Harri Kirvesniemi Sami Repo Kuisma Taipale	Norway II Sture Sivertsen Frode Estil Anders Aukland Øyvind Skaanes	[27]
2	11 January 1998	Ramsau	4 × 10 km relay C/F	Italy Fabio Maj Fulvio Valbusa Pietro Piller Cottrer Silvio Fauner	Sweden Mathias Fredriksson Niklas Jonsson Per Elofsson Torgny Mogren	Austria Mikhail Botvinov Alois Stadlober Christian Hoffmann Achim Walcher	[28]
3	6 March 1998	Lahti	4 × 10 km relay C/F	Finland I Harri Kirvesniemi Mika Myllylä Sami Repo Jari Isometsä	Norway Frode Estil Sture Sivertsen Anders Eide Thomas Alsgaard	Russia I Vladimir Legotine Alexey Prokurorov Andrey Noutrikhin Sergey Chepikov	[29]
4	10 March 1998	Falun	Team Sprint C/F	Sweden I Mathias Fredriksson Per Elofsson	Norway Rune Torseth Tor Arne Hetland	Finland I Jari Isometsä Ari Palolahti	[30]

Women's team

WC	Date	Place	Discipline	Winner	Second	Third	Ref.
1	23 November 1997	Beitostølen	4 × 5 km relay C	Russia I Natalya Baranova-Masalkina Olga Danilova Nina Gavrylyuk Larisa Lazutina	Norway I Anita Moen Marit Mikkelsplass Trude Dybendahl Bente Martinsen	Italy Karin Moroder Stefania Belmondo Sabina Valbusa Gabriella Paruzzi	[31]
2	14 December 1997	Val di Fiemme	4 × 5 km relay F	Russia I Svetlana Nageykina Yelena Välbe Larisa Lazutina Olga Danilova	Italy Gabriella Paruzzi Manuela Di Centa Sabina Valbusa Stefania Belmondo	Russia II Natalya Baranova-Masalkina Olga Zavyalova Yuliya Chepalova Nina Gavrylyuk	[32]
3	6 March 1998	Lahti	4 × 5 km relay C/F	Russia I Olga Danilova Larisa Lazutina Nina Gavrylyuk Yuliya Chepalova	Norway Bente Martinsen Marit Mikkelsplass Elin Nilsen Trude Dybendahl	Russia II Svetlana Nageykina Natalya Baranova-Masalkina Olga Zavyalova Irina Skladneva	[33]
4	10 March 1998	Falun	Team Sprint C/F	Switzerland Sylvia Honegger Brigitte Albrecht-Loretan	France Sophie Villeneuve Karine Philippot	Russia I Irina Skladneva Olga Danilova	[34]

Men's standings

Overall Rank after all 12 events Points 1 Thomas Alsgaard 790 2 Bjørn Dæhlie 678 3 Vladimir Smirnov 431 4 Mikhail Botvinov 330 5 Jari Isometsä 316 6 Fulvio Valbusa 310 7 Mika Myllylä 308 8 Erling Jevne 292 9 Silvio Fauner 273 10 Mathias Fredriksson 268

Long Distance Rank after all events Points 1 Thomas Alsgaard 351 2 Mika Myllylä 196 Bjørn Dæhlie 196 4 Vladimir Smirnov 184 5 Jari Isometsä 176 6 Alexey Prokurorov 156 7 Fabio Maj 155 8 Silvio Fauner 145 9 Frode Estil 142 10 Erling Jevne 131

Sprint Rank after all events Points 1 Thomas Alsgaard 486 2 Bjørn Dæhlie 482 3 Vladimir Smirnov 247 4 Mikhail Botvinov 230 5 Fulvio Valbusa 226 6 Henrik Forsberg 191 7 Erling Jevne 161 8 Mathias Fredriksson 148 9 Jari Isometsä 140 10 Per Elofsson 130

Women's standings

Overall Rank after all 12 events Points 1 Larisa Lazutina 773 2 Bente Martinsen 625 3 Stefania Belmondo 544 4 Anita Moen 462 5 Marit Mikkelsplass 416 6 Olga Danilova 363 7 Trude Dybendahl 333 8 Iryna Taranenko-Terelia 329 9 Yuliya Chepalova 314 10 Nina Gavrylyuk 279

Long Distance Rank after all events Points 1 Larisa Lazutina 293 2 Stefania Belmondo 208 3 Olga Danilova 164 4 Yelena Välbe 136 5 Marit Mikkelsplass 135 6 Anita Moen 126 7 Iryna Taranenko-Terelia 123 Yuliya Chepalova 123 9 Bente Martinsen 106 10 Sabina Valbusa 105

Sprint Rank after all events Points 1 Bente Martinsen 525 2 Larisa Lazutina 480 3 Stefania Belmondo 355 4 Anita Moen 336 5 Marit Mikkelsplass 281 6 Trude Dybendahl 244 7 Iryna Taranenko-Terelia 206 8 Nina Gavrylyuk 204 9 Kateřina Neumannová 200 10 Olga Danilova 199

Achievements

Victories in this World Cup (all-time number of victories as of 1997/98 season in parentheses)

Men  Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR), 4 (41) first places  Thomas Alsgaard (NOR), 3 (4) first places  Vladimir Smirnov (KAZ), 1 (30) first place  Mika Myllylä (FIN), 1 (4) first place  Ari Palolahti (FIN), 1 (1) first place  Fulvio Valbusa (ITA), 1 (1) first place  Alexey Prokurorov (RUS), 1 (9) first place

Women  Larisa Lazutina (RUS), 4 (12) first places  Bente Martinsen (NOR), 3 (3) first places  Stefania Belmondo (ITA), 2 (17) first places  Yelena Välbe (RUS), 1 (45) first place  Marit Mikkelsplass (NOR), 1 (2) first place  Yuliya Chepalova (RUS), 1 (1) first place