Today, the men won their second, but first individual set of awards. And the first Olympic champion became… a Norwegian!
An incredible fight between many athletes awaited us. However, quite a few people unexpectedly missed the results of the first two shootings. In particular, the current Olympic champion in this discipline is Kanten Fillon-Mayet. The Frenchman caught first one, then two, and on the last line of fire for himself, one more penalty minutes. And even the best move over the distance did not allow him to compensate for the loss he had. As a result – 8th position.
Tommaso Giacomel, whose result was counted on by the entire local public, was also missing. Unfortunately, he did not live up to expectations. The Italian also started the race with a penalty minute, to which he later added two more. So in total he had three of them. And his good speed on the track did not allow him to compete for awards. In the end, Tommaso became 6th.
You can still list and list those athletes who were not infallible at the beginning. The cohort of the above-mentioned Fillon-Maye and Giacomel was joined by Johannes Dale-Shevdal, Fabien Claude, Emilien Jacqueline, Philippe Horn, Philippe Navrat, Dmytro Pidruchny, Martin Uldahl… Although some managed to rehabilitate in the future, but not enough to compete for awards in the end.
But at the equator of the race, a cohort of contenders for such coveted Olympic medals has formed. Among them were two Norwegians, two Swedes, a Frenchman and an Italian.
In the end, it was the leaders of the Swedish and Italian national teams who failed to overcome their nerves and compete for the Olympic podium.
Lukas Hofer, who confidently overcame two shootings perfectly, made a mistake on the third, which immediately dropped him to the 7th current step. In addition, the Italian earned two more penalty minutes as a result of the final shooting range. So Hofer finished only 16th.
Martin Ponsiluoma tried to take his time on the laps, betting on quality work at the shooting range. He succeeded until the third shooting, but then his efforts came to naught. First two penalty minutes, then another. So Martin took only 9th place in the end.
Sebastian Samuelsson, after a rather difficult start to the Olympics, tried to abstract himself and the day before spent time with his small family, who came to support him. He also bet on shooting and was not too fast on the track. Everything was going too well until the last firing line, or rather until the 19th shot. It was the last two targets that proved fatal for him, and he ended up earning not only one, but two penalty minutes at once. In this way, the Swede completely removed himself not only from the podium, but also from entering the top six. As a result – 7th position.
Well, those who remained in the fight for such desirable medals were Johan-Olav Bothn, Sturla Legrade and Eric Perrault.
It was the Frenchman, inspired by the victory in the mixed relay, who planned to fully implement his plan for this Olympics today, already in the individual race. However, according to the results of the second shooting, he slightly worsened his situation, leaving one target open. Although he was third in pure skiing, at the end of the finish, Erik knew that one of the Norwegians could take advantage of his mistake, even though he completed the last shoot quite quickly – in 20.3 seconds.
It looked like it was going to be a matchup between the best athlete that year and one of the best athletes this year.
Sturla Legrade was the first to spoil his statistics, missing once on the third shot. That extra minute of penalty dropped him to his current fourth position. Although he remained in the fight, Sturla no longer had the right to make a mistake if he wanted to be on the podium. The fourth firing line was successfully completed by Legrade, but at the exit he was inferior to Perrot, who squeezed out the maximum from himself today. So all we had to do was watch another Norwegian.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Johan-Olav Botn And what a phenomenal race Johan-Olav Bothn demonstrated. Knowing that every shot is worth a victory, and not just a victory, but Olympic gold, the Norwegian left no chance for anyone. After knocking out 20 out of 20 targets, he went into the distance first. And despite winning by only ten seconds from Perrault, Bothn understood that everything was at stake and showed iron nerves. Thus Johan-Olav, who missed the extreme stages before the Games, the opening race – the mixed relay, today fulfilled his own dream. He became the Olympic champion in that discipline, which is considered a classic of world biathlon.
In turn, Eric Perrault, after the gold the day before yesterday, added a silver personal award to his set. And let him not triumph, but he was very close to it and copes with the excitement quite well.
Well, Sturla Legrade finally ended up on the podium this season. He became the winner of the bronze award – the first Olympic medal of his own since the team gold four years ago.
In addition to the aforementioned Tommaso Giacomel, the leading six included a Finn and a German.
Oli Hildensalo had a fantastic race. The Finn was perfect on all four rounds of fire, hitting 20 out of 20 targets, and kept his distance well. In addition, he repeated his career best by finishing fourth. And it is worth noting that then Oli was also fourth in the individual race, although it was at the World Championship in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. He was faultless in that race too.
Philippe Navrat continues to delight with good shooting. The German earned just one minute of penalty in total. Although he looks a little weak in his stride, this is only the beginning of the Games and things can change dramatically, so Navrat will have every chance of a medal. However, he needs to improve his speed. Today he became the 5th.
Ukrainian national team Four athletes had the honor of representing the national team of Ukraine.
The team captain – Dmytro Pidruchnyy started the race surprisingly well. Good speed, zero on the first shot – and for a long time the Ukrainian led the current standings. However, the second firing line ruined Dmytro’s entire race – he earned a three-minute penalty. All the emotions after the unsuccessful shooting were written on his face. And although Pidruchny later did excellently on the firing lines, those earned minutes did not allow him to finish as high as possible. The result is the 18th step.
Getty Images/Global Images Ukraine. Dmytro Pydruchny Vitaliy Mandzin also started the race well and made no mistakes in the first shooting. However, in the future, he made as many as four mistakes based on the results of the next three firing ranges. On the way, the Ukrainian showed the 19th indicator, losing almost 2.5 minutes from the result of Kanten Fillon-Maye. As a result, the 28th place for another national team leader. Not a bad position for wasps the debut race at the Olympic Games. But both Vitaly and Dmytro could show a better result. After all, our athletes have all the ingredients to finish in the top six.
In his turn, Anton Dudchenko became the best among Ukrainians in terms of shooting quality. He earned only one minute penalty for the second shooting. And even in spite of a weak progress in the distance (71st indicator and almost six minutes of loss), Anton managed to become 35th in the end.
The last one among us – Taras Lesyuk – had a frankly weak race. He made four mistakes in total. But on the track, the Ukrainian lost a lot and was unable to compensate for his poor shooting speed on the track (73rd indicator for this component and a loss of six minutes). In the end, Taras ended up in the 65th final position.
Tomorrow, women will also have their first personal start, competing in an individual race. And we will learn the name of the first Olympic champion.
Olympic Games 2026. Antholz (Italy), February 10
Individual race, men
- 1. Johan Olav-Botn (Norway) (0+0+0+0) 51:31.5
- 2. Eric Perrault (France) (0+1+0+0) +14.8
- 3. Sturla Legreid (Norway) (0+0+1+0) +48.3
- 4. Olli Hidensalo (Finland) (0+0+0+0) +1:29.7
- 5. Philipp Navrath (Germany) (1+0+0+0) +1:31.5
- 6. Tomazzo Giacomel (Italy) (1+1+0+1) +2:27.5
- 18. Dmytro Pidruchny (Ukraine) (0+3+0+0) +4:38.9
- 28 Vitaly Mandzin (Ukraine) (0+1+1+2) +5:23.5
- 35. Anton Dudchenko (Ukraine) (0+1+0+0) +5:50.2
- 65. Taras Lesyuk (Ukraine) (1+2+0+1) +9:00.0
Source: sport.ua