The Men's 10 kilometre sprint biathlon competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held on 13 February, at Soldier Hollow. Competitors raced over two 3.0 kilometre loops and one 4.0 kilometre loop of the skiing course, shooting two times, once prone and once standing. Each miss was penalized by requiring the competitor to race over a 150-metre penalty loop.

Results

Ole Einar Bjørndalen, having won the men's 20 kilometre Individual race two days before, came in as one of the favourites. Bjørndalen was also the defending World Cup champion in the sprint, as well as the defending Olympic champion in the discipline. In addition, he had won the 2001 test event at Soldier Hollow, beating countryman Frode Andresen,2001 World Cup 7 - 10 km Sprint Results from biathlonworld.com, retrieved 6 February 2013 and won one of the four World Cup sprints earlier in the season. Raphaël Poirée, the defending overall World Cup champion, had also won a World Cup sprint race in 2001/02, but neither Poirée nor Bjørndalen was leading the World Cup standings, which were closely contested between Andresen, Frank Luck and the defending World Champion in the distance, Pavel Rostovtsev.

Germans Ricco Groß and Sven Fischer set the early pace, both shooting clear on the first shoot, then missing one in the second, with Fischer pulling away over the last loop to lead his countryman by 25 seconds at the finish. Poirée led both of them after the first shoot, but put two shots wide on his final round, dropping him out of contention. Rovstovtsev, not skiing as quickly as Poirée, was also well placed after one shoot, but his one miss on the second left him five seconds behind Groß at the finish.http://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0102/BT/SWRL/OG__/SMSP/BT_O77B_1.0.pdf[- Competition Analysis, Men's 10 km Sprint - SLOC]

Andresen, fresh off a disappointment in the final round of shooting in the individual, was clear on the first shoot, and quick on the skis, but, like the individual, struggled on the last shoot, missing twice and ending up in 8th. The man starting directly behind him, Wolfgang Perner, was slower on the course, but didn't miss a shot, and just managed to edge Groß at the line, finishing 0.2 seconds ahead for, at the time, second place.

But Bjørndalen was still to come, and did not disappoint. The Norwegian shot clear at the opening attempt, but only left the range in 4th, behind Poirée, Andresen and Fischer. However, where all three of those had stumbled at the second shooting round, Bjørndalen made no mistake, shooting clear. He left the range 30 seconds ahead of his closest competitor, Fischer, and held that lead until the finish line for his second gold medal of the games. This was Bjørndalen's third Olympic gold medal, making him the first biathlete to achieve such a feat.

The race was held at 11:00.Final results Rank Bib Name Country Time Penalties (P+S) Deficit 81 Ole Einar Bjørndalen 24:51.3 0 (0+0) 10 Sven Fischer 25:20.2 1 (0+1) 63 Wolfgang Perner 25:44.4 0 (0+0) 6 Ricco Groß 25:44.6 1 (0+1) 23 Wolfgang Rottmann 25:48.8 2 (1+1) 39 Pavel Rostovtsev 25:50.1 1 (0+1) 24 Viktor Maigourov 25:50.9 0 (0+0) 62 Frode Andresen 25:51.5 2 (0+2) +1:00.2 35 Raphaël Poirée 25:56.9 2 (0+2) +1:05.6 10 2 Ludwig Gredler 26:04.3 2 (1+1) +1:13.0 11 87 Oleg Ryzhenkov 26:05.5 0 (0+0) +1:14.2 12 58 Vadim Sashurin 26:09.9 0 (0+0) +1:18.6 13 77 Halvard Hanevold 26:12.5 0 (0+0) +1:21.2 14 72 Zdeněk Vítek 26:14.0 1 (0+1) +1:22.7 15 51 Michael Greis 26:18.4 2 (1+1) +1:27.1 16 50 Paavo Puurunen 26:24.7 1 (1+0) +1:33.4 17 55 Björn Ferry 26:30.5 2 (1+1) +1:39.2 18 74 Wojciech Kozub 26:31.9 1 (0+1) +1:40.6 19 17 Timo Antila 26:33.4 1 (0+1) +1:42.1 20 34 Jeremy Teela 26:36.6 2 (0+2) +1:45.3 21 8 Vincent Defrasne 26:36.7 2 (1+1) +1:45.4 22 75 René Cattarinussi 26:37.3 1 (0+1) +1:46.0 23 49 Tomaž Globočnik 26:40.0 1 (0+1) +1:48.7 24 76 Egil Gjelland 26:42.5 1 (1+0) +1:51.2 25 29 Vesa Hietalahti 26:43.2 0 (0+0) +1:51.9 26 67 Jay Hakkinen 26:43.5 1 (1+0) +1:52.2 27 84 Marko Dolenc 26:47.0 1 (0+1) +1:55.7 28 82 Carl Johan Bergman 26:47.1 1 (0+1) +1:55.8 29 37 Frank Luck 26:47.7 2 (1+1) +1:56.4 30 1 Dimitri Borovik 26:50.1 2 (1+1) +1:58.8 31 54 Tomasz Sikora 26:59.3 1 (0+1) +2:08.0 32 83 Tomáš Holubec 27:01.8 1 (0+1) +2:10.5 33 42 Sergey Rusinov 27:04.3 1 (0+1) +2:13.0 34 44 Roman Dostál 27:04.9 2 (0+2) +2:13.6 35 56 Julien Robert 27:05.1 2 (1+1) +2:13.8 36 16 Vyacheslav Derkach 27:05.3 1 (0+1) +2:14.0 37 59 Alexei Aidarov 27:06.4 2 (1+1) +2:15.1 38 26 Andriy Deryzemlia 27:11.1 1 (0+1) +2:19.8 39 11 Marek Matiaško 27:12.6 1 (0+1) +2:21.3 40 41 Ilmārs Bricis 27:17.3 2 (1+1) +2:26.0 41 30 Kyoji Suga 27:21.0 1 (0+1) +2:29.7 42 31 Marian Blaj 27:25.5 1 (1+0) +2:34.2 43 52 Robin Clegg 27:28.3 2 (1+1) +2:37.0 44 73 Janez Marič 27:28.6 2 (0+2) +2:37.3 45 27 Janno Prants 27:29.2 3 (1+2) +2:37.9 46 80 Oļegs Maļuhins 27:30.7 3 (1+2) +2:39.4 47 21 Petr Garabík 27:30.9 2 (0+2) +2:39.6 48 69 Indrek Tobreluts 27:31.1 2 (0+2) +2:39.8 49 25 Paolo Longo 27:31.9 0 (0+0) +2:40.6 50 86 Wilfried Pallhuber 27:35.7 1 (0+1) +2:44.4 51 43 Sergei Rozhkov 27:39.8 4 (3+1) +2:48.5 52 19 Jēkabs Nākums 27:40.9 1 (1+0) +2:49.6 53 66 Ruslan Lysenko 27:43.1 2 (0+2) +2:51.8 54 20 Lawton Redman 27:43.4 2 (1+1) +2:52.1 55 45 Roland Zwahlen 27:43.7 1 (1+0) +2:52.456 38 Zhang Qing 27:45.3 3 (2+1) +2:54.040 Aleksandr Syman 27:45.3 1 (1+0) +2:54.0 58 13 Wiesław Ziemianin 27:47.0 2 (0+2) +2:55.7 59 22 Sašo Grajf 27:52.6 2 (0+2) +3:01.3 60 60 Georgi Kasabov 27:55.8 1 (0+1) +3:04.5 61 78 Krzysztof Topór 28:02.2 3 (1+2) +3:10.9 62 5 Hidenori Isa 28:03.6 2 (1+1) +3:12.3 63 68 Henrik Forsberg 28:04.0 6 (2+4) +3:12.7 64 64 Jean-Marc Chabloz 28:08.6 1 (0+1) +3:17.3 65 70 Gundars Upenieks 28:11.9 3 (3+0) +3:20.6 66 32 Gilles Marguet 28:20.1 4 (1+3) +3:28.8 67 9 Matthias Simmen 28:22.8 3 (1+2) +3:31.5 68 18 Devis Da Canal 28:25.9 2 (0+2) +3:34.6 69 71 Yukio Mochizuki 28:28.5 2 (2+0) +3:37.2 70 79 Roland Lessing 28:34.4 2 (2+0) +3:43.1 71 61 Jason Sklenar 28:43.4 4 (2+2) +3:52.1 72 7 Mark Gee 28:57.8 2 (2+0) +4:06.5 73 65 Olli-Pekka Peltola 28:58.5 1 (1+0) +4:07.2 74 53 Mike Dixon 28:58.7 1 (0+1) +4:07.4 75 4 Imre Tagscherer 29:08.6 3 (1+2) +4:17.3 76 85 Roman Pryma 29:16.1 3 (1+2) +4:24.8 77 28 Aleksandr Tropnikov 29:30.2 2 (1+1) +4:38.9 78 12 Tord Wiksten 29:39.5 4 (2+2) +4:48.2 79 33 Dmitry Pantov 29:46.3 5 (2+3) +4:55.0 80 47 Shin Byung-Kook 29:51.1 2 (1+1) +4:59.8 81 36 Ricardo Oscare 30:00.2 3 (0+3) +5:08.9 82 48 Liutauras Barila 30:01.4 5 (2+3) +5:10.1 83 46 Mihail Gribuşencov 30:02.2 2 (1+1) +5:10.9 84 15 Žarko Galjanić 30:33.0 3 (1+2) +5:41.7 85 14 Stavros Khristoforidis 31:51.4 2 (1+1) +7:00.1 86 3 Carlos Varas 32:48.1 0 (0+0) +7:56.8 57 Christoph Sumann DNF 2 (0+2)

References