Sprint (10 kilometres), Men

The 10 km sprint event was on the Olympic program for the first time, and Frank Ullrich, the fastest skier of all contestants, was the favorite, having won the two previous World Championships in this event. At the first shooting round, the Norwegian Kjell Søbak, wearing start #3, took the lead. Vladimir Alikin, starting four minutes behind the Norwegian, bettered Søbak’s time by only 0.11 seconds and stayed in the lead until Ullrich, skiing fast as usual, and with a perfect shooting round, was 15 seconds ahead of Alikin. The Olympic champion from the 20 km race, Anatoly Alyabyev, also delivering a perfect shooting series, was in fifth place, but only 3.7 seconds from the silver position. Søbak had to ski one penalty lap after the second shooting round, but after another perfect round, Alikin was in a solid lead, over 40 seconds ahead. But Ullrich had skied excellently from the first to the second shooting ranges, and in spite of two penalty laps, he was 18 seconds ahead of Alikin and expanded his lead to 42 seconds at the finish. Alikin, aged 22 and also new at the international top, was the only skier with no penalty laps and won the silver medal, 16 seconds ahead of his fast finishing teammate Alyabyev.