The Women's 7.5 kilometre sprint biathlon competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held on 13 February, at Soldier Hollow. Competitors raced over two 2.5 kilometre loops and one 3.0 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

Two of the medalists from the women's Individual race were also strong challengers in the sprint, led by Magdalena Forsberg, the five-time defending World Cup overall champion, as well as the defending World Cup winner in the sprint. Kati Wilhelm was the defending world champion and Galina Kukleva was defending champion from the Nagano Games. The test event at Soldier Hollow in 2001 saw Uschi Disl take the win, ahead of Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée and individual champion Andrea Henkel.2001 World Cup 7 - 7.5 km Sprint Results from biathlonworld.com, retrieved 6 February 2013 Entering the Olympics, the sprint World Cup standings were closely contested, with Disl, Olena Zubrilova, Forsberg, Olga Pyleva and Wilhelm separated by just 7 points. Skjelbreid-Poirée was further behind, but was coming in on a winning streak, having taken each of the last two World Cup sprints.

Henkel, the first of the above to go out, was unable to recapture her shooting form from two days before, missing once on each shoot, and finishing well back, in 25th. Her teammate Wilhelm, starting shortly behind her, had no such problems, shooting clear and leading at each of the time checks. France's Florence Baverel-Robert also shot clear, but ended up 45 seconds behind Wilhelm. Pyleva and 1998 Olympic individual champion Ekaterina Dafovska were with in 7 seconds of Wilhelm after the first shoot, but both lost out on the second shoot, Pyleva missing once and finishing 8th, while Dafovska missed twice and ended up 15th.http://ibu.blob.core.windows.net/docs/0102/BT/SWRL/OG__/SWSP/BT_O77B_1.0.pdf[ - Competition Analysis, Women's 7.5 km Sprint - SLOC]

Disl was also close to Wilhelm after the first shoot, but missed a shot on the second, leaving her too much to make up. She did cut into Wilhelm's time on the final loop, but not by enough, coming in 15.6 seconds behind. Kukleva was close to Wilhelm's time after the first shoot, but fell back, despite hitting all her shots, ending up nearly a minute behind. Skjelbreid-Poirée came the closest to catching Wilhelm at the first time check, finishing the lap just 4 seconds behind the German, but missed a shot on the second loop, and slumped behind after that, finishing 43 seconds back. Forsberg lost her chance for gold on the first round of shooting, missing one, and while she shot clear on the second opportunity, she continued to lose time. However, she did just manage to edge Skjelbreid-Poirée for the bronze medal.

The race was started at 13:30.Final results Rank Bib Name Country Time Penalties Deficit 18 Kati Wilhelm 20:41.4 0 (0+0) 37 Uschi Disl 20:57.0 1 (0+1) 58 Magdalena Forsberg 21:20.4 1 (1+0) 54 Liv Grete Poirée 21:24.1 1 (0+1) 25 Florence Baverel-Robert 21:27.9 0 (0+0) 47 Galina Kukleva 21:32.1 0 (0+0) 51 Sandrine Bailly 21:35.7 1 (0+1) 27 Olga Pyleva 21:44.2 1 (0+1) +1:02.8 42 Corinne Niogret 21:50.3 0 (0+0) +1:08.9 10 26 Andreja Grašič 21:55.6 1 (1+0) +1:14.2 11 2 Irina Nikulchina 21:57.0 2 (1+1) +1:15.6 12 6 Katrin Apel 22:01.7 3 (1+2) +1:20.3 13 19 Martina Jašicová 22:11.9 0 (0+0) +1:30.5 14 36 Olga Nazarova 22:14.9 1 (0+1) +1:33.5 15 28 Ekaterina Dafovska 22:17.7 2 (0+2) +1:36.3 16 46 Gunn Margit Andreassen 22:19.7 1 (0+1) +1:38.3 17 52 Pavlina Filipova 22:20.6 1 (0+1) +1:39.2 18 10 Anna Bogaliy 22:25.8 2 (0+2) +1:44.4 19 35 Svetlana Ishmuratova 22:27.3 2 (0+2) +1:45.9 20 33 Yu Shumei 22:29.9 1 (1+0) +1:48.5 21 57 Soňa Mihoková 22:32.1 1 (0+1) +1:50.7 22 43 Irena Česneková 22:33.5 0 (0+0) +1:52.1 23 8 Delphyne Burlet 22:37.7 1 (1+0) +1:56.3 24 13 Sanna-Leena Perunka 22:39.9 1 (0+1) +1:58.5 25 14 Andrea Henkel 22:41.1 2 (1+1) +1:59.7 26 74 Lucija Larisi 22:44.7 1 (1+0) +2:03.3 27 15 Andreja Mali 22:45.5 1 (0+1) +2:04.1 28 38 Ryoko Takahashi 22:58.3 2 (2+0) +2:16.9 29 64 Tamami Tanaka 23:00.0 2 (2+0) +2:18.6 30 72 Hiromi Suga 23:03.5 2 (1+1) +2:22.1 31 4 Tetyana Vodopyanova 23:03.8 2 (0+2) +2:22.4 32 53 Magda Rezlerová 23:05.0 2 (1+1) +2:23.6 33 5 Elena Khrustaleva 23:06.6 2 (1+1) +2:25.2 34 12 Eva Háková 23:09.4 1 (1+0) +2:28.0 35 45 Anna Murínová 23:10.0 1 (1+0) +2:28.6 36 21 Saskia Santer 23:11.2 2 (2+0) +2:29.8 37 59 Outi Kettunen 23:11.3 1 (0+1) +2:29.9 38 66 Ann Elen Skjelbreid 23:14.2 3 (1+2) +2:32.8 39 65 Kateřina Losmanová 23:14.6 2 (0+2) +2:33.2 40 55 Nathalie Santer 23:14.7 3 (1+2) +2:33.3 41 68 Iva Karagiozova 23:18.0 1 (0+1) +2:36.6 42 71 Liu Xianying 23:18.9 1 (1+0) +2:37.5 43 17 Anna Stera-Kustusz 23:24.6 0 (0+0) +2:43.2 44 70 Yevgeniya Kutsepalova 23:26.5 1 (1+0) +2:45.1 45 20 Mami Shindo 23:36.8 2 (2+0) +2:55.4 46 49 Michela Ponza 23:36.9 2 (0+2) +2:55.5 47 48 Nina Lemesh 23:37.4 1 (1+0) +2:56.0 48 63 Olena Petrova 23:40.9 2 (1+1) +2:59.5 49 40 Kara Salmela 23:44.1 3 (1+2) +3:02.7 50 61 Andrea Nahrgang 23:48.7 1 (1+0) +3:07.3 51 32 Valentina Ciurina 23:49.7 1 (0+1) +3:08.3 52 23 Katja Holanti 24:07.2 4 (1+3) +3:25.8 53 44 Gro Marit Istad Kristiansen 24:12.7 4 (3+1) +3:31.3 54 50 Anita Nyman 24:17.0 4 (2+2) +3:35.6 55 29 Dana Cojocea 24:17.3 1 (0+1) +3:35.9 56 1 Kong Yingchao 24:30.2 3 (2+1) +3:48.8 57 56 Sun Ribo 24:32.4 3 (2+1) +3:51.0 58 24 Andžela Brice 24:32.5 1 (0+1) +3:51.1 59 41 Olena Zubrilova 24:33.2 4 (2+2) +3:51.8 60 9 Rachel Steer 24:41.7 3 (2+1) +4:00.3 61 3 Éva Tófalvi 24:43.7 3 (2+1) +4:02.3 62 34 Yelena Dubok 24:50.1 1 (1+0) +4:08.7 63 67 Tadeja Brankovič 25:14.0 5 (4+1) +4:32.6 64 69 Tatiana Kutlíková 25:18.3 5 (3+2) +4:36.9 65 62 Kseniya Zikunkova 25:21.5 5 (3+2) +4:40.1 66 11 Diana Rasimovičiūtė 25:41.4 3 (2+1) +5:00.0 67 7 Zsuzsanna Bekecs 25:42.1 1 (1+0) +5:00.7 68 73 Siegrid Pallhuber 26:20.9 4 (1+3) +5:39.5 69 30 Kim Ja-youn 26:45.2 3 (1+2) +6:03.8 70 16 Despoina Vavatsi 27:11.3 2 (0+2) +6:29.9 71 39 Ivett Szöllősi 27:17.6 4 (2+2) +6:36.2 72 60 Alexandra Rusu 27:20.0 6 (3+3) +6:38.6 73 31 Natalia Lovece 29:33.2 8 (3+5) +8:51.8 74 22 Claudia Barrenechea 30:15.1 5 (3+2) +9:33.7

References

Sports-Reference.com - Women's 7.5 km Sprint - 2002 Olympics