Biathlon at the 2002 Winter Olympics

Biathlon at the 2002 Winter Olympics consisted of eight biathlon events. They were held at Soldier Hollow. The events began on 11 February and ended on 20 February 2002.^[1] For the first time since 1992, the biathlon program expanded. A new race type, the pursuit (for both men and women) was added, the first new race type since the debut of the sprint in 1980.^[2]

Biathlon at the XIX Olympic Winter Games
Andrea Nahrgang competing at Soldier Hollow at the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Venue	Soldier Hollow
Dates	9–20 February
No. of events	8
Competitors	190 from 34 nations
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Frode Andresen competing at Soldier Hollow at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Jeremy Teela competing at Soldier Hollow at the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Medal summary

Seven nations won medals in biathlon, with Germany winning the most (3 gold, 5 silver, 1 bronze), while Norway led the medal table with 4 gold medals. These four all involved Ole Einar Bjørndalen, who won each of the three men's individual events, as well as participating in the gold-medal winning relay team. Kati Wilhelm was the most successful athlete in the women's competition, taking two golds and a silver.

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Norway (NOR)	4	2	0	6
2	Germany (GER)	3	5	1	9
3	Russia (RUS)	1	0	2	3
4	France (FRA)	0	1	1	2
5	Sweden (SWE)	0	0	2	2
6	Austria (AUT)	0	0	1	1
	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		8	8	8	24

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Individual details	Ole Einar Bjørndalen  Norway	51:03.3	Frank Luck  Germany	51:39.4	Viktor Maigourov  Russia	51:40.6
Sprint details	Ole Einar Bjørndalen  Norway	24:51.3	Sven Fischer  Germany	25:20.2	Wolfgang Perner  Austria	25:44.4
Pursuit details	Ole Einar Bjørndalen  Norway	32:34.6	Raphaël Poirée  France	33:17.6	Ricco Groß  Germany	33:30.6
Relay details	Norway (NOR) Halvard Hanevold Frode Andresen Egil Gjelland Ole Einar Bjørndalen	1:23:42.3	Germany (GER) Ricco Groß Peter Sendel Sven Fischer Frank Luck	1:24:27.6	France (FRA) Gilles Marguet Vincent Defrasne Julien Robert Raphaël Poirée	1:24:36.6

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
Individual details	Andrea Henkel  Germany	47:29.1	Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée  Norway	47:37.0	Magdalena Forsberg  Sweden	48:08.3
Sprint details	Kati Wilhelm  Germany	20:41.4	Uschi Disl  Germany	20:57.0	Magdalena Forsberg  Sweden	21:20.4
Pursuit details	Olga Pyleva  Russia	31:07.7	Kati Wilhelm  Germany	31:13.0	Irina Nikulchina  Bulgaria	31:15.8
Relay details	Germany (GER) Katrin Apel Uschi Disl Andrea Henkel Kati Wilhelm	1:27:55.0	Norway (NOR) Ann-Elen Skjelbreid Linda Tjørhom Gunn Margit Andreassen Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée	1:28:25.6	Russia (RUS) Olga Pyleva Galina Kukleva Svetlana Ishmouratova Albina Akhatova	1:29:19.7

Participating nations

Thirty-four nations sent biathletes to compete in the events. Below is a list of the competing nations; in parentheses are the number of national competitors. Chile and Croatia made their Olympic debuts in the sport, with one athlete each.

•  Argentina (2)
•  Austria (5)
•  Belarus (11)
•  Bulgaria (5)
•  Canada (1)
•  Chile (2)
•  China (5)
•  Croatia (1)
•  Czech Republic (10)
•  Estonia (4)
•  Finland (9)
•  France (10)
•  Great Britain (4)
•  Germany (11)
•  Greece (2)
•  Hungary (3)
•  Italy (10)
•  Japan (8)
•  Kazakhstan (2)
•  Kyrgyzstan (1)
•  South Korea (2)
•  Latvia (5)
•  Lithuania (2)
•  Moldova (2)
•  Norway (9)
•  Poland (5)
•  Romania (4)
•  Russia (11)
•  Slovenia (10)
•  Switzerland (4)
•  Slovakia (6)
•  Sweden (5)
•  Ukraine (11)
•  United States (8)

See also

• Biathlon at the 2002 Winter Paralympics