TESERO, Autonomous Province of Trento — Maren Kirkeeide of Norway delivered an impressive performance in her Olympic debut, clinching the gold medal in the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint biathlon at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday. Battling snowy conditions, she triumphed over two strong French competitors.

Kirkeeide showcased impeccable shooting, hitting all 10 targets, and completed the course in 20 minutes and 40.8 seconds. Oceane Michelon of France also maintained a perfect shooting record, finishing a close second, just 3.8 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Lou Jeanmonnot, despite missing one target, secured the bronze with a time 23.7 seconds off the lead.

Jeanmonnot has now achieved a remarkable feat by earning a medal in every event she has competed in at these Games. She previously claimed silver in the 15-kilometer individual event on Wednesday and was part of the victorious French team in the mixed relay alongside Julia Simon, Eric Perrot, and Quentin Fillon Maillet last Sunday.

Kirkeeide expressed her delight at not only participating in the Olympics but also winning gold. “My aim for this season was to compete at the Olympics, so achieving gold is an incredible accomplishment,” she remarked.

“I wanted to give it my all, received encouraging feedback from the coaches, and used that motivation to push through to the finish,” Kirkeeide added. “You can never be certain how fast others are, so I focused on doing my best. I would have been thrilled with a silver as well, but winning gold is truly extraordinary.”

Kirkeeide’s win was in sharp contrast to her performance in the individual where she missed five targets and finished 49th. She said her teammates helped her through it.

Michelon said it was great to share these results with a very strong French team. She had also won silver in last year’s World Championships mass start race.

“It’s amazing,” she said. “It’s my very first race in the Olympics. Today I enjoy this party. I’m just really happy about it.”

Jeanmonnot said the light snow falling made for great conditions but the race was more difficult than the individual on Wednesday.

“Mentally on the shooting range I wasn’t able to stay focused on my shooting and not on results,” she said. “I’m quite happy about getting a medal today because I was not expecting it.”

Her teammate, Simon, missed two of her standing shots and finished a disappointing 34th — 1 minute 55.8 seconds behind the Norwegian.

Also disappointed was Italy’s Lisa Vittozzi, who hit all of her targets but finished 5th, 40.6 seconds back.

“I gave everything but it wasn’t enough,” she said. “I am satisfied because I couldn’t have done more than this. After the first shooting, I was already 15 seconds behind, which is honestly quite strange. So I will have to analyze what did not work today, but I gave it all until the end. But I cannot throw a fifth place away.”

Reigning biathlon sprint champion Marte Olsbu Røiseland has retired. Elvira Oeberg of Sweden took silver in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics, while Dorothea Wierer of Italy won bronze.

This time out, Oeberg missed two shots and finished 27th in the sprint race. Wierer missed three and came in 44th.

The sprint race is the shortest biathlon discipline. Racers head out at 30-second intervals and ski three, 2.5-kilometer loops, shooting once in the prone position and once standing. Biathletes must ski a 150-meter penalty lap for each miss.

Only the top 60 biathletes finishing the sprint race can participate in the pursuit race, which takes place on Sunday. Time gaps are critical in the sprint, because racers in the pursuit go out in the seconds-back order based on their sprint finish.

Four American athletes competed in the women’s biathlon sprint on Saturday. 

Lucinda Anderson, Margie Freed, Deedra Irwin and Joanne Reid did not make it to the podium. Irwin had the best placement of the Americans, ranking 47th. 

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