Relay (4 × 7.5 kilometres), Men

Germany was the favorite, although the event had known only one champion since it had first been contested at the Winter Olympics in 1968, and that was the Soviet Union. They had been 1-2 at the 1991 World Championships and although the Soviet Union no longer existed, the Unified Team was expected to challenge the Germans, although they were no longer favored. But on the first leg a disaster almost befell the Germans when Ricco Groß collided with France’s Xavier Blond. Groß fell and lost a lot of time, finishing his leg in only 12th place, with the lead held by Finland, followed by Sweden and the Unified Team. Germany moved up to fifth after the second leg, with Sweden leading the Unified Team. But on the third leg Mark Kirchner had the fastest leg of the event, 20:17.5, almost a minute ahead of the Unified’s third skier, and it pulled Germany into a lead they would hold to the line to win the gold medal. Although Sergey Chepikov was skiing the last leg for the Unified Team, he lost more ground to Fritz Fischer, who was comfortably ahead at the end, and skied the last 50 metres carrying a German flag. Germany was the first nation other than the Soviet Union to the win the men’s biathlon relay at the Olympics. Sweden was fourth after three legs, trailing Norway, but Mikael Löfgren outskied and outshot Eirik Kvalfoss by almost two minutes, with the second best leg of the event, to bring his team a bronze medal. The three medal-winning teams had no shooting penalties.