The Women's 15 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 13 February, at Cesana San Sicario. Competitors raced over five loops of a 3.0 kilometre skiing course, shooting twenty times, ten prone and ten standing. Each miss resulted in one minute being added to a competitor's skiing time.[1]
Anna Bogaliy-Titovets won at this track at the pre-Olympic trial event in 2005, when she finished in a time of 50:47.9 with one penalty minute, while Andrea Henkel was the defending World and Olympic champion.[2] Henkel had not won a 15 km World Cup race apart from these two wins in the Championships, however,[3] and Sweden's Anna Carin Olofsson was the World Cup leader before the Games.[citation needed]
Russia's Olga Pyleva originally placed second in the race, but was found to be in violation of anti-doping rules when she tested positive for carphedon, and she was then disqualified.[4]