Moldova at the 2002 Winter Olympics

Moldova participated at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States, held between 8 and 24 February 2002. The country's participation in the Games marked its third appearance at the Winter Olympics since its debut in the previous Games.

The Moldovan team consisted of five athletes including two women, who competed across three sports. Skier Ion Bucșa served as the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. Moldova did not win any medal in the Games, and has not won a Winter Olympics medal as of these Games.

Moldova achieved independence after the break-up of Soviet Union in 1991 and its National Olympic Committee was formed on 29 January 1991. As the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Moldova was only recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1993, Moldovan athletes participated as a part of a unified team at the 1992 Summer Olympics at Barcelona. Moldavan athletes competed from 1952 to 1988 as a part of Soviet Union.^[1] The 1994 Winter Olympics marked Moldova's first participation as an independent nation in the Olympic Games. After the nation made its debut in the Winter Olympics at the 1994 Games, this edition of the Games in 2002 marked the nation's third appearance at the Winter Games.^[1]

The 2002 Winter Olympics was held in Salt Lake City, United States, held between 8 and 24 February 2002.^[2][3] The Moldovan team consisted of five athletes including two women, who competed across three sports.^[4][5] Skier Ion Bucșa served as the country's flag-bearer during the opening ceremony.^[6] Moldova did not win any medal in the Games, and has not won a Winter Olympics medal as of these Games.^[1]

Moldova sent five athletes including two women who competed in nine events across three sports at the Games.^[4][5]

Biathlon competitions were held at Soldier Hollow in Wasatch Mountain State Park.^[7] Mihail Gribuşencov and Valentina Ciurina represented Moldova at the sport in the men's and women's categories respectively. This was the first Winter Games for both the athletes.^[8][9] Gribuşencov took part in the men's sprint and individual competitions. He recorded a best place finish of 83rd in the sprint competition.^[10][11] Ciurina took part in three events in the women's competition, with her best finish coming in the pursuit event.^[12]

Cross-country skiing competitions were held at Soldier Hollow in Wasatch Mountain State Park.^[13] Ion Bucsa and Elena Gorohova represented Moldova at the sport in the men's and women's categories respectively. This was the third Winter Games for Gorohova, who made her debut at the 1994 Games.^[14] Busca first participated in the event in the 1998 Winter Olympics and made his second appearance in the event.^[15] Busca took part in the 30 km freestyle competition, and finished in 67th place.^[16] Gorohova took part in two events in the women's competition. She finished 55th in the sprint event while not finishing the freestyle event.^[17][18]

The Luge event was held from 10 to 11 February 2002 at the Utah Olympic Park in Park City.^[19] In his first run, Liviu Cepoi clocked a time of 47.161, finishing more than two second behind the leader Armin Zöggeler. In the second run, he clocked 47.353 to be ranked 42nd amongst the 50 participants. He performed better than the previous run in the third attempt, finishing 39th with a time of 46.604. In the final run, he completed the circuit with the time of 46.825 to be ranked 40th. Cepoi was classified in the 38th position with a total time of 3:07.943 and finished more than ten seconds behind the gold medalist Zöggeler.^[20]

• Official Olympic Reports
• Olympic Winter Games 2002, full results by sports-reference.com