The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 took place 22 February – 4 March 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. It was the second time this city has hosted these championships, having previously done so in the 1972 Winter Olympics. Sapporo was selected as venue by vote at the 43rd FIS World Congress in Portorož, Slovenia, on 6 June 2002. It also marked the third time the championships were hosted outside Europe in a year that did not coincide with the Winter Olympics; it was the first championship held in Asia. The ski jumping team normal hill event was not held, as it had been in 2005.

Highlights

Mascot

The mascot of the championships was Norkey, an Ezo deer (Ezo was the former name of Hokkaidō Island in Japan) named for combining the words "Nordic" and "ski" who wears a scarf in the symbol colors around his neck.

Initial ranks

As of 16 February 2007, the top three World Cup positions were as follows: Cross-country skiing's Tour de Ski winners were Kuitunen for the women and Angerer for the men; both got 400 World Cup points for their respective TdS victories. Jacobsen won ski jumping's Four Hills Tournament, and Manninen won Nordic combined's Tour of Germany. The last officially published entry list included 485 athletes from 49 countries. This included 125 women from 33 nations and 197 men from 48 nations in Cross-country skiing, 68 men from 17 nations in Nordic combined, and 93 men from 21 nations in Ski jumping.

Preparation

Participating nations

49 nations were listed on the preliminary entry list.

Venues

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony took place on 22 February 2007 at 19:30 Japan Standard Time (JST) (10:30 UTC) at the Sapporo Dome, with 23,602 spectators. Speeches were made by Fumio Ueda, Sapporo Mayor and Organizing Committee President, Ms. Yasuko Ikenobo, Deputy Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Ms. Harumi Takahashi, Governor of Hokkaido, and Prince Akishino. Then the men's and women's individual sprint cross-country skiing competitions took place.

Attendance

Though the attendance on the first day of the championship, which included the opening ceremony, was nearly 30,000, the total attendance over the eleven days of the championships numbered around 90,000. Organizing Committee president Fumio Ueda admitted that the lack of good Japanese athletes – Japan only won one medal, a bronze in the ski jumping team large hill event, and the best individual finish came in the women's individual sprint with Madoka Natsumi's fifth-place finish – meant that the interest was low. FIS president Gian-Franco Kasper also said he had expected higher crowds, particularly in the cross-country skiing races on the Shirahatayama course. Several newspapers slated the low turnout in headlines: Norwegian Dagbladet called it a scandal, while Swedish Aftonbladet described it as a fiasco.

Cross-country skiing

For more detailed information, please see the article Cross-country skiing at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007. Medal table – men's cross-country skiing Medal table – women's cross-country skiing

Men's Nordic combined

For more detailed information, please see the article Nordic combined at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007. Medal table

Men's ski jumping

For more detailed information, please see the article Ski jumping at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2007. Medal table

Doping controversy

On 21 February 2007, Sergey Shiryayev of Russia was involved in pre-competition testing for doping with a blood and urine sample. The blood sample in the "A-test" turned out high in hemoglobin, so the "B-test" was evaluated and confirmed to contain EPO. Shiryayev, who had his best finish of 11th in the 15 km event at the championships, was subsequently disqualified on 4 March 2007. FIS President Gian Franco Kasper expressed both disappointment in Shiriaev's doping actions and happiness in the efficiency of FIS's doping controls. At the FIS Council Meeting in May 2007 at Portorož, Slovenia, Shiryayev received a two-year ban from FIS competition (two Russian coaches were also sanctioned, by the Russian ski federation).

Post-championship comments

FIS President Gian Franco Kasper expressed his thanks to the careful attention paid by FIS Vice-President (and Organizing Committee Chair) Yoshiro Ito over the detailed planning, arrangements, and execution of the championships, including television and Internet coverage. Kasper also expressed displeasure in the poor attendance of the events.

Medal table

Medal winners by nation.