Friday Olympic Rundown: Sweden Bests Norway in Men’s Biathlon Relay, U.S. Record-Setting 6th

FasterSkierFebruary 23, 2018
Fredrik Lindström of Sweden crosses the line after securing a gold medal for his Swedish teammates in the men’s relay to close out biathlon competitions at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

FasterSkier would like to thank Fischer Sport USAMadshus USAConcept2Boulder Nordic Sport, and Swix Sport US for their generous support, which made this coverage possible.

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2018 Olympics (PyeongChang, South Korea): Biathlon Men’s 4 x 7.5 k relay

Full report

Germany were the favorites coming into this men’s relay and Erik Lesser started them off with a near-perfect relay leg to sit in first place, but shooting collapses by Benedikt Doll and Simon Schempp left the team with bronze medals at the finish.

On a windy, gusty day, the relay instead came down to a race between Norway and Sweden. Coming into the last shooting stage Fredrik Lindström of Sweden and Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway were stride for stride. Each missed their first shot in standing, but Lindström pulled himself together and hit the next four shots, then hit the final target using a spare round. Svendsen, on the other hand, kept missing and ended up skiing a penalty loop – just as he had when anchoring the Norwegian team in the Olympics in Sochi four years ago.

A strong leg from Tim Burke, who cleaned prone and then survived on spare rounds while chaser Martin Fourcade of France headed to the penalty loop, helped the U.S. secure a best-ever sixth-place finish in the Olympic men’s relay. (Photo: FlyingPointRoad)

Then, that left Norway off the podium. This time, Norway still earned silver, as behind him Schempp had his own shooting woes.

An exciting relay with multiple lead changes in the end turned into something of a blowout, with Lindström able to celebrate on his final loop before joining overjoyed teammates Peppe FemlingJesper Nelin, and Sebastian Samuelsson at the finish. It was the first Olympic relay gold medal in the history of Swedish biathlon, and the team did it with phenomenal shooting – just seven spare rounds despite difficult conditions. They were the only team to avoid the penalty loop, which most teams visited more than once.

The Norwegian squad of Lars Helge BirkelandTarjei BøJohannes Thingnes Bø, and Svendsen finished 55.5 seconds back. The Germans with Lesser, Doll, Arnd Peiffer, and Schempp crossed the line +2:07.1, and the Austrian squad of Tobias EberhardSimon EderJulian Eberhard, and Dominik Landertinger were the first ones out of the medals, +2:52.5.

The American team of Lowell BaileySean DohertyTim Burke, and Leif Nordgren finished sixth, +3:50.2, tying the best-ever men’s relay finish by an American team at the Olympics. They had 14 spare rounds and two penalty loops.

The Canadian squad of Christian GowScott GowMacx Davies, and Brendan Green finished 11th, +5:40.3, with 11 spare rounds and a penalty loop.

Results

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