12.5 kilometres Mass Start, Women

This event saw the leading competitors change with regularity. Early leader was Russia’s Svetlana Sleptsova, but in picking up a total of three shooting penalties, she fell out of contention and eventually finished 14th. Leader at the half way stage was the German Simone Hauswald, who had been close to the leaders from the start. However Hauswald was to miss two targets at the third shooting point, and it seemed as though she had lost her chance of a medal. Olga Medvedtseva , shooting flawlessly, took the lead after the third shooting point, but as she wasn’t as strong a skier as other competitors, she was to finish 4th. Working their way up the field were Olga Zaitseva and Magdalena Neuner, the German winner of the 10 kilometres event, and were in that order after the final shooting. However Neuner proved to be stronger over the final kilometre to take the gold medal by 5.5 seconds from Zaitseva in a time of 39:19.6. Finishing fast was Hauswald, who just missed the silver medal by 1.8 seconds, and had to be content with bronze. This was Neuner’s second gold medal of the Games after placing second in the sprint race. Later in 2010 she was awarded the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt, Germany’s highest athletic honour. Two notable absentees were the Russian pair of multiple world and Olympic medallist Albina Akhatova and 2008 world champion Ekaterina Iourieva. Both were banned for their part in a doping scandal.