Gabriella Paruzzi

Gabriella Paruzzi (born 21 June 1969) is a retired Italian cross-country skier who competed from 1991 to 2006 and formerly skied with the G.S. Forestale. She skied in World Cup events, and won the Women's Overall World Cup in 2004.

Equipment She was sponsored by Rossignol, and skied with Rossignol X-IUM skis for both skate and classic disciplines. Her boots were also named Rossignol X-IUM's, and the bindings were Rottefella R3's. Her boots and bindings were of the New Nordic Norm (NNN) system.

2002 Winter Olympics At the 2002 Olympics, she was in the women's 30 km classical event, when one of her poles broke. Luckily, her coach was nearby, and she took his pole, which was too long. She kept on racing and near the end the coach came back to give her the right size pole. She caught the pack of skiers and ended up winning gold by 4.5 seconds in that race.

Cross-country skiing results All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games 5 medals – (1 gold, 4 bronze) Year Age 5 km 10 km 15 km Pursuit 30 km Sprint 4 × 5 km relay Team sprint 1992 22 23 9 16 12 Bronze 1994 24 24 12 18 30 Bronze 1998 28 9 14 12 10 Bronze 2002 32 — 6 8 Gold 8 6 2006 36 13 5 5 — Bronze 7

World Championships 5 medals – (3 silver, 2 bronze) Year Age 5 km 10 km 15 km Pursuit 30 km Sprint 4 × 5 km relay Team sprint 1991 21 26 19 — 8 Silver 1993 23 26 18 14 6 Silver 1995 25 19 — 8 12 4 1997 27 20 — 15 9 4 1999 29 19 17 12 10 Silver 2001 31 16 — 13 17 Bronze 2003 33 4 — 5 4 — — 2005 35 115 16 — Bronze —

a. Cancelled due to extremely cold weather.

World Cup Season standings Season Age OverallDistanceLong DistanceMiddle DistanceSprint 1990 20 1991 21 25 1992 22 22 1993 23 15 1994 24 27 1995 25 27 1996 26 20 1997 27 24 23 23 1998 28 26 22 26 1999 29 16 10 26 2000 30 21 18 17 30 2001 31 6 6 2002 32 8 16 2003 33 14 2004 34 2005 35 10 10 22 2006 36 36 24

Individual podiums 4 victories 18 podiums

Team podiums

3 victories – (2 , 1 ) 29 podiums – (25 , 4 )

Note: Until the 1999 World Championships and the 1994 Olympics, World Championship and Olympic races were included in the World Cup scoring system.

Trivia The ski stadium in Tarvisio is named in her honor.