Norway’s biathletes continued to prove that they are a force to be reckoned with on the Olympic stage. Norwegian biathlon champion Johannes Thingnes Boe did not disappoint and set out on a brisk pace against his brother Tarjei Boe and French rival Quentin Fillon Maillet. “TJ” Boe stayed agile on his skis to finish the race in first place at 24:00.4. His brother, Tarjei, was 38.9 seconds slower and took bronze for his first individual Olympic medal. Maillet was sandwiched in between the Boe brothers, earning silver 25.5 seconds behind. This was the first time the Boe brothers stood together on the Olympic podium in biathlon.
Each man missed one target in the shooting range. In the 10km sprint event, there is one of each shooting stage: prone and standing. Both Boe brothers missed a target in the standing stage. Maillet missed one in the prone, but hit all five targets in the standing shooting stage. Johannes Thingnes Boe was fast enough to maintain first after he missed one target and skied a lap around the 150m penalty loop. However, for Maillet, missing the target in the prone stage cost him the gold medal.
ROC’s Maxim Tsvetkov went clean with his shooting in the prone and standing stages, but he could not find his way into the top three. He finished in fourth because of the slower ski speed he found up inclines and in the final home stretch.
The top 60 athletes advanced to the men’s 12.5km pursuit. United States biathletes Jake Brown and Sean Doherty will continue on after finishing 36th and 47th. Paul Schommer and Leif Nordgren were eliminated and wound up 74th and 83rd.
Athlete performances in the 10km sprint directly impacts starting order in the pursuit discipline. Athletes join competition in intervals related to how far back they were from the first finishing time.
The women’s and men’s pursuit events will both take place on Feb. 13 at 4:00 a.m. ET and 5:45 a.m. ET.