Sprint (7.5 kilometres), Women

The early leader was Ukrainian Valentyna Tserbe-Nessina, who started 10th and shot cleanly for a perfect series, finishing in 26:10.0. Her time held up until the 55th starter came into the stadium, Svetlana Paramygina, who was leading the seasonal World Cup. Paramygina narrowly edged out Tserbe-Nessina, finishing in 26:09.9, although she had missed two targets early in her race. Canadian Myriam Bédard, the 1993 World Champion in the event, started right after Paramygina, and later entered the stadium with almost the same time as the two leaders. But Bédard finished strongly and crossed the line in 26:08.8, despite her two missed targets during the race. With the drama seemingly played out, the 62nd starter, Kazakhstan’s Inna Sheshkil came into the stadium, on the same pace as the leaders. But struggling from fatigue, she fell only two metres from the line, and although she got up and finished, she was 3.9 seconds out of the medals.

This was Bédard’s second gold medal in Lillehammer as she had already won the 15 km individual race. Her life after biathlon was not as easy for her. She first tried to switch to speed skating, without success. In 2002, while working in marketing with Via Rail, she raised concerns about the company’s financial dealings. She would later claim that, because of this, she was forced to leave that job. This would only become known in 2004 during the sponsorship scandal which occurred after Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien left office. She would later make headlines in December 2006 when she was arrested in Maryland, was charged with illegally spiriting her daughter out of Canada, violating a custody agreement she had with her ex-husband, and would be sentenced to two years probation.