Who won the first Olympic women’s cross-country skiing 10-kilometre race in 1956?

Lyubov Kozyreva won the first Olympic women’s cross-country skiing 10-kilometre race in 1956.

Kozyreva represented the Soviet Union at the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. She won the women’s 10-kilometre race, finishing ahead of fellow Soviet skier Radya Yeroshina.

Women’s cross-country skiing had appeared at the Winter Olympics before 1956, but the 10-kilometre distance was introduced for the Cortina programme. The race became an important standard event in women’s Olympic cross-country skiing.

Kozyreva also helped the Soviet Union win the women’s 3 × 5-kilometre relay at the same Games. She is sometimes mixed up with Raisa Smetanina, another Soviet champion who became one of the sport’s most decorated Olympic athletes in later decades.