Olympedia – 15 kilometres, Women

The 2001 World Champion was Sweden’s Magdalena Forsberg, who was in the midst of winning her sixth consecutive overall World Cup title. This was her third Olympics, having competed in cross-country in 1992 and both biathlon and cross-country in 1998, but she had yet to win an Olympic medal, despite also having won six individual World Championships between 1997-2001. The early lead was taken by Germany’s Andrea Henkel, well-known on the World Cup circuit, but who had never won a medal in a major international. Henkel missed only one shot, equal or better than all the leaders, and she finished in 47:29.1, which would be the fifth fastest ski time. No one challenged her time until Norway’s Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée started 56th. The wife of France’s biathlon star Raphaël Poirée also missed only one target and came in less than eight seconds behind Henkel. Forsberg started 65th, and posted the third fastest ski time, but her two missed targets brought her home in third place, 39.2 seconds behind Henkel. Henkel’s gold medal was somewhat surprising but over the next six years, she would win four individual World Championships and the 2006-07 World Cup.

A few days later Forsberg would also win a bronze in the sprint. She would finish the 2001-02 World Cup season as the champion for the sixth year in a row, and retired after 2002. The greatest ever female biathlete, Magdalena Forsberg would end her career with only two bronze medals at the Olympics.