Sprint (7.5 kilometres), Women

This was the first women’s biathlon event at the Winter Olympics, although women had been competing in the World Cup since the 1982-83 season and at the World Championships since 1984. The early years of women’s international biathlon had been dominated by Norwegian and Swedish athletes. But in recent years the Soviet women, or at Albertville, the Unified Team women, had come on strong. The favorite was Norway’s Grete Ingeborg Nykkelmo, the 1991 World Champion and a former cross-country skier. In the end the first women’s Olympic gold medal would go to a former cross-country Olympian, Anfisa Reztsova, who had won two medals in cross-country skiing at Calgary in 1988. She won the sprint despite three missed targets shooting, but her skiing was so powerful that she overcame that. The other two medalists also missed two targets, as skiing predominated in this event. Reztsova would go on to win the 1991-92 World Cup and would repeat in the 1992-93 season. Nykkelmo placed 31st, done in by five shooting misses.