Yuliya Chepalova

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Medal record
Women's cross country skiing
Olympic Games
Gold	1998 Nagano	30 km freestyle
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	Individual sprint
Gold	2006 Turin	4 x 5 km
Silver	2002 Salt Lake City	10 km classical
Silver	2006 Turin	30 km freestyle
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake City	15 km freestyle
World Championships
Gold	2001 Lahti	4 x 5 km
Gold	2005 Oberstdorf	7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit
Silver	2005 Oberstdorf	10 km
Silver	2005 Oberstdorf	4 x 5 km
Bronze	2001 Lahti	Individual sprint
Bronze	2005 Oberstdorf	Team sprint

Yuliya Chepalova (Russian: Ю́лия Чепа́лова; born December 23, 1976 in Komsomolsk, Russian SFSR) is a Russian cross-country skier.

1 Early and current personal life
2 Skiing career
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Early and current personal life

Daughter of a cross-country skiing coach, Chepalova started to ski as soon as she began to walk. Coached by her father, Anatoly Chepalov, Yuliya made her debut in 1986 and continued to move upward through the old Soviet system (and later Russian, following the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991). Chepalov, a coach of the Russian junior national team, reportedly sold off all of his assets to help finance his daughter's career. Chepalova is currently affiliated with Dynamo Moscow, lives in Moscow with her husband, Dmitry Lyashchenko and her daughter Olesya; works as a sports instructor, and speaks fluent Russian and some German.

[edit] Skiing career

Debuting on the FIS cross-country circuit in the 1995–1996 season, Chepalova has continually ranked in the Top 15 throughout her career (the lone exception is the 2002–2003 season, where she took maternity leave to have her daughter Olesya), finishing #1 overall in 2000–2001 (#3 in 2005–2006 with #1 in the distance category (greater than 5 km)). This includes success at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, with golds in the 4x5 km (2001) and 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit (2005), silvers in the 4x5 km and 10 km freestyle (both 2005), and bronzes in the Individual sprint (2001) and Team sprint (2005). Additionally, Chepalova has won the women's 30 km at the Holmenkollen ski festival three times (1999, 2004, and 2006), joining fellow Russian cross-country skier Larisa Lazutina as the only three-time winners of the event. She earned the Holmenkollen medal in 2004.

At the 1998 Winter Olympics, Chepalova won the women's 30 km freestyle event in her Olympic debut, becoming the youngest winner of that event (and in women's cross country skiing). Four years later at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Chepalova won a complete set of medals with gold in the Individual sprint, silver in the 10 km classical, and bronze in the 15 km freestyle. At the most recent Winter Olympics in Turin, Chepalova would win two more medals with a gold in the 4x5 km and a silver in the 30 km freestyle mass start.

Chepalova has been absent from the cross country skiing World Cup for the 2006–2007 season so far, because of pregnancy.