Norway had a roller coaster run in the men’s 4x7.5km relay but somehow finished with the gold medal at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics Tuesday. They went from first to 11th and caught a major break on the last shot at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. France took the silver and despite a major mistake at the range, the ROC won bronze.
The Swedes came in as defending champions but didn’t make a great showing in any of the individual races. Norway leaned heaviest to take it with the Boe brothers in play, but with Quentin Fillon Maillet and his team in the hunt, France had a great chance at medaling near them. Teams had to send one person out and complete three laps of 2.5kms, with two visits to the shooting range.
On the first visit, Norway, the ROC went clean but didn’t cross the line first. It was Switzerland and Estonia taking charge, but at the 3.4 km mark, Norway got back in front with the ROC right behind them. France missed two at the range but somehow made it back to the leading pack. In their second visit, while standing, France went clean with China and Switzerland, but it was the ROC that took the lead despite having a penalty lap. Behind them were Belarus and France, who kept pace with them.
Those three countries came in first for the exchange, along with the others that included Norway, who had one of their best in play to make up the lost ground. At the 1km mark, they made their way to the top ten, looking to better themselves at the range. The ROC was in by themselves to shoot and went clean before France and Belarus fired away. The Belorussians took off perfectly while France had a miss but went clean on their shots.
During the fourth visit to the range, the ROC was again alone but missed twice as France and Belarus arrived. He managed to go clean and kept the two behind by 17 seconds with France in second and Belarus falling 42 seconds behind in third. Norway moved into seventh at their exit of the range, sitting 1:40 of the leader.
At the third exchange, the ROC was still in the lead, with France 36 seconds behind. Belarus was still in third, with Italy on their tail. Norway moved into sixth at the halfway point but didn’t cut into the deficit. At the fifth shot, the top three remained in place as Germany and Norway completed the top five. The gap for the Norwegian’s was 1:52 which nearly had the podium fading from their grasp.
At the sixth shoot, the ROC was up nearly a minute on France, with Germany behind them. Norway got themselves into the hunt, sitting five seconds from bronze medal position with the last exchange left. The ROC comfortably left the starting line with their anchor leaving for the competition 41 seconds ahead. France, Germany, and Norway came in together for their exchange, leaving it in the hands of their best to fight for a medal.
In the seventh shoot, the ROC was in and out quickly before second through fourth arrived. Norway was first to take off in second while France struggled after a missed shot. They moved to fourth, while Germany was behind Norway by three seconds. The two countries put a 10-second margin on France, leaving them to fight for silver and bronze alone for a moment. France got within four seconds while on the course as their biathlete had the energy to close the gap.
In the last shot, the ROC came in alone but missed four times with none made. He got two in but had to reload each time. With the door wide open, Norway took over first place while the ROC ended up needing two penalty laps in a major defeat. France followed Norway out 21 seconds back, with the ROC somehow beating Germany for third, who were 12 seconds trailing.
With a kilometer to go, Norway had a 26 second lead on France, who weren’t going to close in. The ROC sat in third, with Germany fighting from behind. At the finish line, in what was a shocking turn of events, Norway took the gold medal with a time of 1:19:50.2. France arrived at the line 27 seconds back and the ROC held on for the bronze.
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