4 × 7.5 kilometres Relay, Men
| Date | 21 February 1998 — 13:00 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Nozawa Onsen Resort, Nozawa Onsen | |
| Participants | 72 from 18 countries | |
| Format | Eight shots for each group of five targets. Penalty loop (150 metres) skied for each missed target. | |
| Venue details | Course Length: 7,500 m Height Differential: 68 m Maximum Climb: 32 m Shooting 1: Prone at 2.5 km, 50 m range Shooting 2: Standing at 5.0 km, 50 m range Total Climbing: 286 m | |
This event was considered a toss-up between Germany and Norway. Germany had won the World Championships in 1997 and 1995, and was second to Russia in 1996. Norway had been second to Germany in 1997, but their young biathletes were coming on, and they had won both individual events, Halvard Hanevold winning the 20 km, and Ole Einar Bjørndalen taking the sprint. Germany took the lead on the first leg, with Norway only sixth. On the second leg, Peter Sendel opened up more time on Hanevold, but Latvia’s Ilmārs Bricis posted what would be the fastest leg of the event to move Latvia ahead of Germany. But that didn’t last. Latvia dropped back to fifth with Germany leading Russia by 1:10 after the third leg, Norway still only in fourth place. Norway’s anchor was Bjørndalen and he set off after Germany’s Frank Luck. Bjørndalen beat Luck by 1:23.5 on the leg, but Germany was never in danger, winning the gold medal by 20.1 seconds over Norway, with Russia third. This was the third consecutive German victory in the event, with Ricco Groß on all three teams.
| Pos | Nr | Team | NOC | Time | Misses (Extra Shots) | Split (Pos) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Germany |  GER | 1-21:36.2 | 0 (6) | Gold | |||
| 4-1 | Ricco Groß | 20:09.3 | 0 (1) | 20:09.3 (1) | |||||
| 4-2 | Peter Sendel | 19:56.6 | 0 (0) | 40:05.9 (2) | |||||
| 4-3 | Sven Fischer | 20:18.0 | 0 (2) | 1-00:23.9 (1) | |||||
| 4-4 | Frank Luck | 21:12.3 | 0 (3) | 1-21:36.2 (1) | |||||
| 2 | 1 | Norway |  NOR | 1-21:56.3 | 0 (7) | Silver | |||
| 1-1 | Egil Gjelland | 20:33.8 | 0 (2) | 20:33.8 (6) | |||||
| 1-2 | Halvard Hanevold | 20:08.7 | 0 (1) | 40:42.5 (5) | |||||
| 1-3 | Dag Bjørndalen | 21:25.0 | 0 (4) | 1-02:07.5 (4) | |||||
| 1-4 | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | 19:48.8 | 0 (0) | 1-21:56.3 (2) | |||||
| 3 | 3 | Russian Federation |  RUS | 1-22:19.3 | 0 (7) | Bronze | |||
| 3-1 | Pavel Muslimov | 20:35.9 | 0 (1) | 20:35.9 (8) | |||||
| 3-2 | Vladimir Drachov | 19:56.6 | 0 (2) | 40:32.5 (3) | |||||
| 3-3 | Sergey Tarasov | 21:01.4 | 0 (3) | 1-01:33.9 (2) | |||||
| 3-4 | Viktor Maygurov | 20:45.4 | 0 (1) | 1-22:19.3 (3) | |||||
| 4 | 7 | Belarus |  BLR | 1-23:14.0 | 0 (4) | ||||
| 7-1 | Aliaksei Aydarau | 20:23.6 | 0 (0) | 20:23.6 (3) | |||||
| 7-2 | Aleh Ryzhankou | 20:18.5 | 0 (3) | 40:42.1 (4) | |||||
| 7-3 | Aliaksandr Papou | 21:08.3 | 0 (1) | 1-01:50.4 (3) | |||||
| 7-4 | Vadzim Sashuryn | 21:23.6 | 0 (0) | 1-23:14.0 (4) | |||||
| 5 | 13 | Poland |  POL | 1-24:09.8 | 0 (8) | ||||
| 13-1 | Wiesław Ziemianin | 20:29.7 | 0 (1) | 20:29.7 (4) | |||||
| 13-2 | Tomasz Sikora | 20:54.5 | 0 (2) | 41:24.2 (8) | |||||
| 13-3 | Jan Ziemianin | 21:34.3 | 0 (1) | 1-02:58.5 (6) | |||||
| 13-4 | Wojciech Kozub | 21:11.3 | 0 (4) | 1-24:09.8 (5) | |||||
| 6 | 10 | Latvia |  LAT | 1-24:24.4 | 2 (12) | ||||
| 10-1 | Oļegs Maļuhins | 20:18.2 | 0 (2) | 20:18.2 (2) | |||||
| 10-2 | Ilmārs Bricis | 19:46.7 | 0 (1) | 40:04.9 (1) | |||||
| 10-3 | Gundars Upenieks | 22:48.1 | 1 (6) | 1-02:53.0 (5) | |||||
| 10-4 | Jēkabs Nākums | 21:31.4 | 1 (3) | 1-24:24.4 (6) | |||||
| 7 | 6 | France |  FRA | 1-24:53.0 | 2 (11) | ||||
| 6-1 | Andreas Heymann | 20:44.5 | 0 (1) | 20:44.5 (11) | |||||
| 6-2 | Raphaël Poirée | 20:04.4 | 0 (3) | 40:48.9 (7) | |||||
| 6-3 | Thierry Dusserre | 22:12.0 | 1 (4) | 1-03:00.9 (8) | |||||
| 6-4 | Patrice Bailly-Salins | 21:52.1 | 1 (3) | 1-24:53.0 (7) | |||||
| 8 | 5 | Finland |  FIN | 1-25:01.4 | 2 (11) | ||||
| 5-1 | Ville Räikkönen | 20:34.3 | 0 (2) | 20:34.3 (7) | |||||
| 5-2 | Paavo Puurunen | 20:08.6 | 0 (1) | 40:42.9 (6) | |||||
| 5-3 | Harri Eloranta | 22:31.0 | 1 (5) | 1-03:13.9 (9) | |||||
| 5-4 | Olli-Pekka Peltola | 21:47.5 | 1 (3) | 1-25:01.4 (8) | |||||
| 9 | 8 | Italy |  ITA | 1-25:07.3 | 1 (17) | ||||
| 8-1 | Patrick Favre | 21:13.0 | 0 (6) | 21:13.0 (14) | |||||
| 8-2 | Wilfried Pallhuber | 20:50.7 | 0 (2) | 42:03.7 (11) | |||||
| 8-3 | René Cattarinussi | 20:55.9 | 0 (3) | 1-02:59.6 (7) | |||||
| 8-4 | Pieralberto Carrara | 22:07.7 | 1 (6) | 1-25:07.3 (9) | |||||
| 10 | 12 | Sweden |  SWE | 1-25:25.7 | 0 (14) | ||||
| 12-1 | Mikael Löfgren | 21:01.0 | 0 (5) | 21:01.0 (13) | |||||
| 12-2 | Jonas Eriksson | 21:41.9 | 0 (5) | 42:42.9 (12) | |||||
| 12-3 | Tord Wiksten | 22:09.3 | 0 (4) | 1-04:52.2 (13) | |||||
| 12-4 | Fredrik Kuoppa | 20:33.5 | 0 (0) | 1-25:25.7 (10) | |||||
| 11 | 9 | Austria |  AUT | 1-25:33.8 | 2 (15) | ||||
| 9-1 | Wolfgang Perner | 20:32.6 | 0 (2) | 20:32.6 (5) | |||||
| 9-2 | Ludwig Gredler | 21:04.8 | 1 (3) | 41:37.4 (9) | |||||
| 9-3 | Reinhard Neuner | 22:39.1 | 1 (6) | 1-04:16.5 (10) | |||||
| 9-4 | Wolfgang Rottmann | 21:17.3 | 0 (4) | 1-25:33.8 (11) | |||||
| 12 | 2 | Slovenia |  SLO | 1-25:43.2 | 2 (9) | ||||
| 2-1 | Sašo Grajf | 20:56.6 | 0 (2) | 20:56.6 (12) | |||||
| 2-2 | Jože Poklukar | 21:55.6 | 2 (4) | 42:52.2 (14) | |||||
| 2-3 | Janez Ožbolt | 21:45.4 | 0 (3) | 1-04:37.6 (11) | |||||
| 2-4 | Tomaž Globočnik | 21:05.6 | 0 (0) | 1-25:43.2 (12) | |||||
| 13 | 11 | Estonia |  EST | 1-26:30.2 | 0 (13) | ||||
| 11-1 | Janno Prants | 20:39.7 | 0 (2) | 20:39.7 (10) | |||||
| 11-2 | Indrek Tobreluts | 21:15.3 | 0 (1) | 41:55.0 (10) | |||||
| 11-3 | Kalju Ojaste | 23:03.7 | 0 (6) | 1-04:58.7 (14) | |||||
| 11-4 | Dimitri Borovik | 21:31.5 | 0 (4) | 1-26:30.2 (13) | |||||
| 14 | 16 | Czech Republic |  CZE | 1-26:35.5 | 0 (7) | ||||
| 16-1 | Petr Garabík | 21:30.8 | 0 (2) | 21:30.8 (16) | |||||
| 16-2 | Zdeněk Vítek | 22:11.8 | 0 (1) | 43:42.6 (17) | |||||
| 16-3 | Jiří Holubec | 22:00.9 | 0 (3) | 1-05:43.5 (16) | |||||
| 16-4 | Ivan Masařík | 20:52.0 | 0 (1) | 1-26:35.5 (14) | |||||
| 15 | 17 | Japan |  JPN | 1-27:55.7 | 4 (18) | ||||
| 17-1 | Kyoji Suga | 22:10.9 | 1 (5) | 22:10.9 (17) | |||||
| 17-2 | Hironao Meguro | 20:56.3 | 0 (3) | 43:07.2 (15) | |||||
| 17-3 | Shuichi Sekiya | 21:44.0 | 0 (4) | 1-04:51.2 (12) | |||||
| 17-4 | Atsushi Kazama | 23:04.5 | 3 (6) | 1-27:55.7 (15) | |||||
| 16 | 18 | Kazakhstan |  KAZ | 1-27:56.0 | 1 (14) | ||||
| 18-1 | Dmitry Pantov | 22:37.0 | 1 (4) | 22:37.0 (18) | |||||
| 18-2 | Dmitry Pozdnyakov | 21:41.2 | 0 (2) | 44:18.2 (18) | |||||
| 18-3 | Aleksandr Menshikov | 21:57.7 | 0 (3) | 1-06:15.9 (18) | |||||
| 18-4 | Valery Ivanov | 21:40.1 | 0 (5) | 1-27:56.0 (16) | |||||
| 17 | 15 | United States |  USA | 1-28:13.9 | 0 (15) | ||||
| 15-1 | Jay Hakkinen | 20:37.7 | 0 (4) | 20:37.7 (9) | |||||
| 15-2 | Dan Westover | 22:14.0 | 0 (4) | 42:51.7 (13) | |||||
| 15-3 | Andrew Erickson | 22:57.2 | 0 (5) | 1-05:48.9 (17) | |||||
| 15-4 | Rob Rosser | 22:25.0 | 0 (2) | 1-28:13.9 (17) | |||||
| 18 | 14 | Ukraine |  UKR | 1-28:57.1 | 4 (13) | ||||
| 14-1 | V'iacheslav Derkach | 21:29.0 | 0 (3) | 21:29.0 (15) | |||||
| 14-2 | Ruslan Lysenko | 21:41.9 | 0 (2) | 43:10.9 (16) | |||||
| 14-3 | Mykola Krupnyk | 21:54.2 | 0 (2) | 1-05:05.1 (15) | |||||
| 14-4 | Andriy Deryzemlia | 23:52.0 | 4 (6) | 1-28:57.1 (18) |