THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE INTERNATIONAL BIATHLON ...

oLYMPIC SPECIALtime. Bailly put in a superb performance, gaining the bestwomen’s course time and securing France’s final medalof the Olympic Games. They finished 4.3 seconds ahead ofthe German “over-30” team, who even without MagdalenaNeuner managed to get a medal. That Bronzegave Kati Wilhelm the seventh Olympic medalof her career.The Norwegian men dished up a veryspecial quartet. 40-year-old HalvardHanevold led off, handingover to Tarjei Boe (almost half6680627492886692FIGURE SKATINGPacific ColiseumFREESTYLE SKIINGCypress MountainICE HOCKEYCanada Hockey Place/UBC Thunderbird ArenaLUGEThe Whistler Sliding CentreNORDIC COMBINEDWhistler Olympic ParkSHORT TRACK SPEED SKATINGPacific ColiseumSKELETONThe Whistler Sliding CentreC. Sumann - AuT,E. khrustaleva - kAzUVER 2010ndbook88SKI JUMPINGWhistler Olympic Parktaking a breather. It was now Martin Fourcade’s turn. Inspite of three missed targets he put in a dazzling skiingperformance PAGE and claimed the Silver medal. 32-year-oldALPINE SKIINGPavol Huraijt 84 of Slovakia Whistler gained Creekside Bronze, the country’s firstmen’s medal. Slovakia concluded the Games with a total ofBIATHLONthree Olympic 88 medals,Whistlera firstOlympicin SlovakianParkhistory.In the women’s competition, Magdalena Neuner onceBOBSLEIGHagain made 92her mark, becoming the most successful femalebiathlete of the Games. Despite two missed targetsThe Whistler Sliding CentreCROSS-COUNTRY SKIINGshe stayed 88ahead of Russia’s Olga Zaitseva and GermanWhistler Olympic Parkteammate Simone Hauswald. One name making a firstCURLINGappearance 78among the top 10 at these Games was Hele-Vancouver Olympic Centrena Jonsson of Sweden. SNOWBOARD Along with Neuner, the Swedish80woman had been touted Cypress as Mountain a potential medal winner, yetthe Swedish women were SPEED left SKATING empty-handed, with Björn70Ferry’s Gold medal the Richmond only Olympic thing Ovalthat prevented a totaldebacle.OPENING AND CLOSING CEREMONIES102BC PlaceRELAYS: GOOD LUCK AND BAD LUCK102 VICTORY CEREMONIESThe Relays 106 concluded BC Place/Whistler the Olympic Medals Plaza Biathlon program.One of the biggest surprises in the run-up to the competitionswas the fact that Magdalena Neuner was not part ofthe German Women’s Relay squad.That day of the competition, it was Russia’s turn to celebrate.Their team of Svetlana Sleptsova, Anna BogaliyTitovets, Olga Medvedtseva and Olga Zaitseva crossed thefinish over half a minute ahead of the French team. TheFrench first starter, Marie Laure Brunet took the lead, andSylvie Becaert maintained their position, but Marie Dorinhad a bad day and her team fell far behind. It was all upto the experienced Sandrine Bailly to make up the lostHanevold’s age) who then jumped to the front of the pack.Emil Hegle Svendsen stayed relatively inconspicuous in hisleg, allowing Ole Einar Bjoerndalen to quietly cross the finishand bring home the Gold, his sixth Olympic Gold medal.Halvard Hanevold, in turn, became the oldest Biathlon OlympicGold medallist in history. The age difference of 18years 238 days was the largest in any Olympic medal-winningRelay team. The four Austrians: Simon Eder, DanielMesotitsch, Dominik Landertinger and Christoph Sumann,won the Silver medal, the country’s first-ever Olympic Relaymedal.The Russian men continued to lick their wounds fromthe start of the biathlon competitions. Their Bronze medalcame as medicine to their wounded pride. In contrast, theGerman men’s fifth place was their worst performancesince the Grenoble Olympic Winter Games in 1968.The results of the two weeks of competitions confirmedthat the Olympic Games have laws all of their own. Althoughthe big nations and big names are used to being20 biathlonworld The official Magazine of The iBU 20 i 2010