FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007

Highlights

• The most successful competitor was Finland's Virpi Kuitunen who won three golds and one bronze.
• 20-year-old Astrid Jacobsen from Norway won three medals in women's cross-country with a gold in the individual sprint and bronzes in the team sprint and 4 x 5 km.
• Lars Berger of Norway became the first person to win medals at both the biathlon and Nordic skiing world championships in the same year with Nordic skiing golds in the 15 km and 4 x 10 km events and a silver in the 4 x 7.5 km biathlon relay in Rasen-Antholz, Italy, in February.
• Indoor skiing was held for the first time at the Sapporo Dome with the cross-country sprint and the Nordic combined sprint events.
• Germany's Ronny Ackermann became the first person to win the Nordic combined 15 km individual Gundersen event in three straight championships.
• Hannu and Pirjo Manninen of Finland became the first brother-and-sister combination to win gold medals at the same championships with Hannu's wins in the Nordic combined 7.5 km sprint and 4 x 5 km team events, and Pirjo's win in the women's 4 x 5 km cross-country relay.
• Belarus earned their first championship medal with Leanid Karneyenka's surprise silver in the 15 km event.
• Petra Majdič of Slovenia earned her first championship medal and the first for the nation both for women and in cross-country skiing.
• Switzerland's Simon Ammann won medals in both individual hill competitions and had the longest jumps in the team large hill events.
• Adam Małysz of Poland won his fourth world championship gold medal with the largest victory in the history of the individual normal hill event, his third win in event of the last four championships.
• Despite being well run and well-organized, the championships attendance was only 90,000, mostly at the Sapporo Dome and the ski jumping hills of Miyanomori and Okurayama. This amount was only a third of what was there at the previous games at Oberstdorf.
• A record 697 doping tests were administered for the event, one of the largest in any international major sports outside the Winter Olympics, including urine, EPO urine, blood, blood transfusion, and human growth hormone testing. One positive EPO urine control was found on Sergey Shiryayev, whose case resulted in a two-year suspension at the FIS Council meeting in Portorož, Slovenia, in May 2007, and nine start prohibitions were issued following pre-competition blood control. The cost for all FIS controls was over CHF 1 million for the 2006–07 season at all skiing disciplines for all championships.

  Mascot

Initial ranks

Preparation

• Three-time Olympic and six-time World Championship medalist Masahiko Harada was appointed Ambassador to the championships on 12 July 2006.
• Media accreditation closed on 30 September 2006. During the event, Hiroshi Takeuchi of the Kyodo News served as chief of the National Press and head of the Press Centers, and Kurt Henauer of the FIS served as International Press Chief. As of 31 January 2007, at least 1150 international media earned accreditation.
• Members of the organizing committee attended a technical directors' seminar on cross-country skiing in Tokyo on 28–29 October 2006 in an effort to expand cross-country in Japan, South Korea, and China
• FIS Vice President Yoshiro Ito of Japan, who is also on the event's organizing committee, stated in an interview with FIS that he sees growth will develop among Asian nations following this event since skiing in general is weak in Asia.
• Sapporo Mayor and Event Organizing Committee Chair Fumio Ueda, in an FIS interview, stated that "I am convinced that the Championships – held in Asia for the first time – will provide many children and young people, our future leaders, with lofty dreams and great hopes, and will enable everyone around the globe to share the emotions of this event, thus contributing to the pursuit of world peace."
• 450 pre-competition doping tests occurred for all cross-country skiers and Nordic combined skiers coordinated by the Japan Anti-Doping Agency with support from the FIS Doping Control Coordinator from the FIS-appointed specialist agency, IDTM. Post-competition doping results were conducted by JADA with urine samples taken during the press conferences. The testing samples were conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency testing facilities in Tokyo. The top four athletes plus two randomly chosen athletes in all events were subjected. Out-of-competition testing was also conducted as well, a program that began in the aftermath of the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2001 doping scandal in Lahti, Finland, that has been successful in the Winter Olympics of Salt Lake City and Turin and the World Championships of Val di Fiemme and Oberstdorf.

  Participating nations

Venues

• The ski jumping individual normal hill competition took place at Miyanomori of 100 m ) where the individual normal hill competition and the ski jumping competition of the Nordic combined at the 1972 Winter Olympics took place.
• The ski jumping individual and large hill competitions took place at Okurayama where the individual large hill competition of the 1972 Winter Olympics also took place.
• The Sapporo Dome hosted the opening ceremonies, individual and team cross-country sprint events, the cross-country portion of the 7.5 km Nordic combined sprint event, and the closing ceremonies of the championships. It marked the first time in the championship's history that a skiing event was held both indoors and in the evening.
• The remaining cross-country skiing events took place at the Shirahatayama cross-country course.

  Opening ceremony

Attendance

Cross-country skiing

Men's Nordic combined

Men's ski jumping

Doping controversy

Post-championship comments

Medal table