Justine Braisez-Bouchet wins gold in women's mass biathlon start

Justine Braisaz-Bouchet of France waves her nation's flag while crossing the finish line for the gold medal in the women's 12.5km mass start at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. 

Justine Braisaz-Bouchet pulled herself late into the lead to win big at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Friday. The French biathlete topped Tiril Eckhoff and Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway, who took silver and bronze in the women’s 12.5km mass start. The Frenchwoman’s actions of minimal misses earned her a second gold at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. Eckhoff achieved her third consecutive medal in the same event, while Roeisland won a medal in every event at the Olympics this year. 

The top 30 biathletes took off on the 2.5km course, where they would complete five laps, with four visits to the shooting range. According to their world cup standings, the competitors left as a whole, with Germany’s Denise Herrmann leading the entire pack. Norway took the helm with Roeiseland skiing them into the shooting range as the chaos of firing began. On the way out, Tiril Eckhoff got in front of her teammate by a small margin as Hanna Oeberg of Sweden sat between them. 

At the entrance of the second shoot, six biathletes came in with the rest 20 seconds or more behind. Eckhoff and Roeiseland finished well and were out in first and second, followed by Julia Simon of France, who was more than 30 seconds behind. The two Norwegians came in alone to the third shoot, facing off for perfection in the standing position. With a 45 second gap, they took their time, but both missed twice, leading them to the penalty laps. 

Simon’s teammate Braisaz-Bouchet went perfect, coming to the exit line at the exact time as Roeiseland, who managed to finish her penalty laps quickly.  The Frenchwoman didn’t stay behind her too long, overtaking the Norwegian and gaining 15 seconds at the 8.4km mark. Eckhoff was in fourth, sitting a second back of Roeiseland, hoping to have a better outcome on the final visit to the range. 

Both Norwegians missed twice again with Braisaz-Bouchet continuing to lead after she missed one target. Eckhoff and Roeiseland somehow came out in second and third, but the gap was 50 seconds for the French biathlete, who skied away for the gold. At the first time check, Eckhoff cut 16 seconds from the gap, but it wasn’t enough to catch Braisaz-Bouchet. The 25-year-old finished 15 seconds from the Norwegians, who made sure that no one surpassed them for the remaining spots on the podium.