France had the best to come to the finish first at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics Tuesday night. Martin Fourcade’s victory for the team in the biathlon mixed relay earned a gold medal for the French with Norway earning silver and Italy taking bronze by a very close margin with a protest coming right after at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre. Martin Fourcade’s anchor finish made him France’s most decorated all-time gold medalist in both summer and winter sports.
In the event’s second appearance at the Olympics, the reigning Olympic champions would have trouble doing it again with Ole Einar Bjorndalen not representing the team this year. Norway hasn’t been at their best in both men’s and women’s events winning less than a gold in any event. So far, the Germans have been the best with Laura Dahlmeier leading her country to more medals than the men’s team. The women would go first with two legs of three laps spanning two kilometers followed by the men’s two legs that went three laps each going 2.5kms.
Italy and Germany came out clear with Kazakhstan and France as well while Norway missed twice. As they got into the second lap, the three European teams were out front spanning six seconds with Sweden trying to catch up to them. Italy opened the lead of six seconds after the second round of shooting flowing well at knocking own the targets with Germany and France taking their time. The gap was 16 seconds between the three with one to go before the first exchange.
Italy made the tag first with Germany down two seconds and France back seven seconds. Dahlmeier took off as the best one out of the three leaders to make a big difference in who would trade off to the men. The Italians remained quick in shooting clean with Germany slightly behind by five seconds. Belarus got into third with Darya Domracheva skiing the leg that moved her team into third after the first lap. France had a miss that put them seven seconds back trying to close the gap between the two leaders.
A massive one occurred when Germany contended to hold after the second round of shooting where both they and Italy missed for the first time. When Dahlmeier finished, she had over 20 seconds of time ahead in first with Italy and Belarus still running second and third. The exchange came with the German’s still sending out their best with Erik Lesser going out on the tag with the advantage of having a nearly 30-second lead.
Before coming into the third round of shooting, Lesser had 26 seconds to himself with Italy still in second and Belarus in third. When he left, the margin was 33.9 when Italy went clean while Belarus missed. France went clean as well giving then a hold of third with Fourcade prepared to take the anchor.
Before the final exchange, Germany had a 42 seconds second lead with Italy and Belarus still behind. France got into second despite being behind by so much wanting to give their man the best chance to still compete for a gold medal win. The margin was 32 seconds for France and Italy with Norway back in the fight and Belarus in fifth. Arnd Peiffer had the final leg for Germany which gave them a strong chance to defend their lead depending on his first visit to the range.
Fourcade cut five seconds at the first checkpoint and three in the next before coming into the last of two visits to the range for the teams. As Peiffer set up, his competitors came in missing two in the process. Despite needing to reload manually, he finished with a six-second lead while Italy and France went perfectly. Fourcade was on Peiffer’s back going up the hill as he hunted for the lead while pressuring the competition. Norway gave themselves a fighting chance for a medal with Emil Hegle Svendsen anchoring his team battling Italy for the bronze.
The last shoot was huge for France as he had history to be made at the Olympics with Germany still close in tow. When it was all over, France took off clean while Germany missed twice. Italy and Norway missed that took them out of the gold but gave Svendsen second position by 15 seconds. Italy and Germany fought for third as it was being settled out. When it became clear at the home stretch, it was Fourcade who brought it to the finish for France with Norway solidifying the silver. The race to the finish was very close but at the line, it was Italy taking the bronze by a margin of three-tenths of a second. There was a challenge of the results by the Germans as they felt that Italy cut their athlete off at the homestretch signifying blocking. After the inquiry went to the jury on site, officials determined after more than a half hour that Italy didn't commit any violations.
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