Biathlon at the XX Olympic Winter Games | |
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Venue | Cesana San Sicario |
Dates | 11–25 February |
No. of events | 10 |
Competitors | 204 from 37 nations |
Biathlon at the 2006 Winter Olympics | ||
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Individual | men | women |
Sprint | men | women |
Pursuit | men | women |
Mass start | men | women |
Relay | men | women |
Biathlon at the 2006 Winter Olympics consisted of ten biathlon events. They were held at the Cesana-San Sicario arena. The events began on 11 February and ended on 25 February 2006. Approximately 6,500 spectators were expected by the organizing committee. In these games, biathlon events were open to both men and women but they raced in different distances in their own events. [1]
Men from 28 nations and women from 27 nations qualified to participate in the events. Only seven nations in total took home medals, Germany winning the most (5 gold, 4 silver, 2 bronze). Six biathletes won 3 medals each: Albina Akhatova, Kati Wilhelm, Martina Glagow, Michael Greis, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, and Sven Fischer. Greis won the most gold medals, with a total of three. [2]
The top 20 countries at the International Biathlon Union Nations Cup ranking of 2004–05 are permitted to pick four biathletes for each event, and five biathletes for the whole Olympics. The top five may send a sixth biathlete as a reserve. The countries seeded 21st to 28th (27th for women) may send a maximum of one biathlete. Other countries may not send biathletes unless the top 28 countries do not fill their quota. These restrictions apply to each gender, so that the countries who appear in the top 20 in both the men's and the women's list are able to send five men and five women. All entries were to have been submitted to the organizing committee by 30 January 2006.
The following table lists the 28 nations that qualified for the men's events and the 27 nations that qualified for the women's events:
Rank | Men [3] | Women [4] | Rank | Men | Women | |
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1 | ![]() | ![]() | 15 | ![]() | ![]() | |
2 | ![]() | ![]() | 16 | ![]() | ![]() | |
3 | ![]() | ![]() | 17 | ![]() | ![]() | |
4 | ![]() | ![]() | 18 | ![]() | ![]() | |
5 | ![]() | ![]() | 19 | ![]() | ![]() | |
6 | ![]() | ![]() | 20 | ![]() | ![]() | |
7 | ![]() | ![]() | 21 | ![]() | ![]() | |
8 | ![]() | ![]() | 22 | ![]() | ![]() | |
9 | ![]() | ![]() | 23 | ![]() | ![]() | |
10 | ![]() | ![]() | 24 | ![]() | ![]() | |
11 | ![]() | ![]() | 25 | ![]() | ![]() | |
12 | ![]() | ![]() | 26 | ![]() | ![]() | |
13 | ![]() | ![]() | 27 | ![]() | ![]() | |
14 | ![]() | ![]() | 28 | ![]() |
Of the thirty-seven competing nations, seven of them took home all the medals. With over double the medals of any other nation, Germany ranked number one.
Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
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1 | ![]() | 5 | 4 | 2 | 11 |
2 | ![]() | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 |
3 | ![]() | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
4 | ![]() | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
5 | ![]() | 0 | 3 | 3 | 6 |
6 | ![]() | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
7 | ![]() | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Totals (7 entries) | 10 | 10 | 10 | 30 |
Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
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Individual | Michael Greis ![]() | 54:23.0 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen ![]() | 54:39.0 | Halvard Hanevold ![]() | 55:31.9 |
Sprint | Sven Fischer ![]() | 26:11.6 | Halvard Hanevold ![]() | 26:19.8 | Frode Andresen ![]() | 26:31.3 |
Pursuit | Vincent Defrasne ![]() | 35:20.2 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen ![]() | 35:22.9 | Sven Fischer ![]() | 35:35.8 |
Mass start | Michael Greis ![]() | 47:20.0 | Tomasz Sikora ![]() | 47:26.3 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen ![]() | 47:32.9 |
Relay | ![]() Ricco Groß Michael Rösch Sven Fischer Michael Greis | 1:21:51.5 | ![]() Ivan Tcherezov Sergei Tchepikov Pavel Rostovtsev Nikolay Kruglov, Jr. | 1:22:12.4 | ![]() Julien Robert Vincent Defrasne Ferréol Cannard Raphaël Poirée | 1:22:35.1 |
Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
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Individual | Svetlana Ishmouratova ![]() | 49:24.1 | Martina Glagow ![]() | 50:34.9 | Albina Akhatova ![]() | 50:55.0 |
Sprint | Florence Baverel-Robert ![]() | 22:31.4 | Anna Carin Olofsson ![]() | 22:33.8 | Lilia Efremova ![]() | 22:38.0 |
Pursuit | Kati Wilhelm ![]() | 36:43.6 | Martina Glagow ![]() | 37:57.2 | Albina Akhatova ![]() | 38:05.0 |
Mass start | Anna Carin Olofsson ![]() | 40:36.5 | Kati Wilhelm ![]() | 40:55.3 | Uschi Disl ![]() | 41:18.4 |
Relay | ![]() Anna Bogaliy-Titovets Svetlana Ishmouratova Olga Zaytseva Albina Akhatova | 1:16:12.5 | ![]() Martina Glagow Andrea Henkel Katrin Apel Kati Wilhelm | 1:17:03.2 | ![]() Delphyne Peretto Florence Baverel-Robert Sylvie Becaert Sandrine Bailly | 1:18:38.7 |
Olga Pyleva of Russia originally placed second in the women's individual race, but was found to be in violation of anti-doping rules when she tested positive for carphedon, and she was then disqualified. [5]
Thirty-seven nations qualified biathletes to compete in the events. Below is a list of the competing nations; in parentheses are the number of national competitors.
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Ole Einar Bjørndalen is a retired Norwegian professional biathlete and coach, often referred to by the nickname, the "King of Biathlon". With 13 Winter Olympic Games medals, he is second on the list of multiple medalists behind Marit Bjørgen who has won 15 medals. He is also the most successful biathlete of all time at the Biathlon World Championships, having won 45 medals. With 95 World Cup wins, Bjørndalen is ranked first all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. He has won the Overall World Cup title six times, in 1997–98, in 2002–03, in 2004–05, in 2005–06, in 2007–08 and in 2008–09.
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