10 kilometres Sprint, Men

East German Frank-Peter Roetsch had won this event at the 1985 and 1987 World Championships, and had also won the 20 km individual event. He was the 1986-87 World Cup champion, and when this event started, he had already won the 20 km event in Calgary. In the end he won this event as expected, becoming the first biathlete to win both individual events at the Winter Olympics, although there had only been two events since 1980. Roetsch won the event despite missing one target and having to ski a penalty loop at the second shooting. The other medalists, Soviets Valery Medvedtsev, 1986 World Champion in this event, and Sergey Chepikov, were clean in their shooting rounds, thus Roetsch had outskied them by a large amount. The first six places went to biathletes from East Germany and the Soviet Union.