4 × 7.5 kilometres Relay, Men

Norway was favored in this event coming in to Sochi, as they had not been beaten at the World Championships since 2008. Russia had come to Sochi looking for multiple medals in biathlon but had struggled. The team’s benefactor was Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, who owned the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, but as the Games neared their end, Prokhorov said he would resign as President of the Russian Biathlon Union if they did not improve their performance. And that they did by winning the final biathlon gold medal of the Sochi Olympics in the men’s relay.

Norway took the early lead, with the brothers Tarjei Bø and Johannes Thingnes Bø leading after the first two legs. Russia was third, as Germany’s Erik Lesser moved his team into second. It had been a very disappointing Winter Olympics for the German biathletes, but Daniel Böhm held onto second after the second leg. Norwegian biathlon legend, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, looking for his record 14th Winter Olympic medal, skiied the third leg, and shot cleanly. But his skiing was slower than usual, and Arnd Peiffer moved Germany only 2 seconds back, with Russia another 15 seconds behind. Norway’s anchor leg was Emil Hegle Svendsen, who had won gold in Sochi in the mass start race, but had been sick throughout the Games. He shot very poorly on his leg, missing four targets and dropped completely off the podium as they would finish fourth.

The gold and silver medals came down to a race between the Russian and German anchor skiiers – Anton Shipulin and Simon Schempp. Schempp shot better, needing only 2 extra shots to hit all his targets, to Shipulin’s 4, but he could not match Shipulin’s speed over the snow and Shipulin came home in front by 3.5 seconds. Austria won the bronze medal, almost 30 seconds back, with Norway well behind in fourth.

And that was how the results stood until February 2020, when the International Biathlon Union (IBU) disqualified Yevgeny Ustyugov (RUS) after a re-test of samples from 2013 revealed the presence of oxandrolone. As a result, Ustyugov was stripped of all his results from the 2013-14 season and was disqualified from all five events in which he competed at Sochi. His relay disqualification cost Russia the gold medal. As of July 2020, no upgrade of medals has been announced by the IOC. Ustyugov has an appeal pending with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) as of October 2021, who announced the decision on this will be delayed until 2022.