10 kilometres Sprint, Men

Germany’s Mark Kirchner had won this event at the 1990 and 1991 World Championships. He had been second in the 1990-91 World Cup season behind Soviet Sergey Chepikov. He would win this gold medal as well, defeating his teammate, Ricco Groß, by 15.7 seconds. Groß was the only one of the top four finishers to have missed a target in shooting, which gave Kirchner the margin of victory. The perfect shooting rounds for Kirchner were somewhat surprising has he had been having difficulty with the rifle during the early World Cup events. Chepikov placed fourth behind Finland’s surprising Harri Eloranta, who had never been on the podium before in a major international and never would again after Albertville.