12.5 kilometres Mass Start, Women

A mass start was first held at the World Championships in 1999. Only 30 biathletes are allowed to start, based on World Cup points. The skiers have four shooting stations, shooting five shots at each, with each missed target forcing the biathlete to ski a penalty loop. A lapped skier must withdraw from the race. The 2005 World Champion was Norway’s Gro Marit Istad Kristiansen who did not qualify for the race based on her World Cup points. The runner-up in 2005 had been Sweden’s Anna-Carin Olofsson, who had already won a silver medal in Torino in the sprint. A former cross-country skier, she took the lead early, and was never headed, missing only one target during the race, and winning Sweden’s first biathlon gold since the first Olympic biathlon event in 1960, won by Klas Lestander. Kati Wilhelm, who had won the pursuit a week before, narrowed the gap to 9.6 seconds but Olofsson pulled away on the final lap. Wilhelm would win silver, followed by her teammate Uschi Disl. For Disl, this was her final attempt to win an individual gold medal in her fifth Winter Olympics. Disl would finish her career with nine Olympic medals, the most ever for women, with two relay gold medals, four silvers and three bronzes. At the World Championships she won 19 medals, including eight golds. Wilhelm was still active going into Vancouver in 2010, placing second in the 2008-09 World Cup. Through 2009 she had won 13 World Championship medals, including five golds. At the Olympics, she had won three gold and three silver medals, three in Salt Lake City, and three in Torino.