20 kilometres, Men

East German Frank Ullrich had been a dominating figure on the international scene after his breakthrough at the 1978 World Championships. After his successful 1980 Winter Olympics (one gold and two silver medals), he was 1981 sprint and relay World Champion, 20 km and relay World Champion in 1982, and 20 km World Champion 1983, giving him a total of six individual and four relay World or Olympic gold medals. Still only 26, he was expected to increase his medal collection in the 1984 Olympics. But in 1983 his wife Sylvia died after a sudden illness, and Ullrich announced that he would retire from top sport. However, he was persuaded to return for another season and reluctantly agreed, but his preparations for the 1984 Olympics were surely affected by his wife’s death.

As usual, the 20 km race was the opening biathlon event in the 1984 Winter Olympics. After the first round of shooting, the new biathlon star from East Germany, 19-year old Frank-Peter Roetsch was in the lead. Roesch had won the silver medal behind Ullrich at the 1983 World Championship. In second place after the first shooting round was Peter Angerer of West Germany, who had won the bronze medal behind Roetsch at the 1983 World Championship. On the second series of shots, Roetsch was penalized two minutes and dropped down to sixth, putting Angerer in the lead. After the third shooting round the situation changed again. Jan Matouš, a 22-year old unmerited Czech, had taken over the lead, five seconds ahead of Angerer and Roetsch back in medal position in third. At the final set of targets the Norwegian Erik Kvalfoss, world sprint champion from 1982 and 1983, and the fastest skier of the day, took an early lead. Matouš missed four targets and was out of the fight for medals. Then Roetsch missed one target, but was one minute ahead of Kvalfoss when he left for the final 2.5 km to the finish. Of the late starters, only Angerer was expected to compete with Roetsch’s time, and he did. After a perfect standing shooting round he was over a minute ahead of his East German competitor, and easily secured the first ever Olympic biathlon gold medal for West Germany. Roetsch had no problems taking the silver medal ahead of fast finishing Kvalfoss. Ullrich was far from his former self, usually one of the fastest skiers, he lost three minutes to Kvalfoss in skiing time and had to be content with fifth place, behind Frenchman Yvon Mougel, who improved from sixth in 1980 to fourth in 1984.