4 × 6 kilometres Relay, Women

After a silver medal in 2018, Sweden won its second medal in the women’s biathlon relay by taking gold. Three members of their team competed in PyeongChang: Linn Persson, Mona Brorsson, and Hanna Öberg. The team was completed with Hanna’s younger sister Elvira Öberg. The ROC team took the silver medal with Germany taking the bronze.

The first German runner, Vanessa Voigt, did a good job and gave a courageous performance in what was her first World Cup season and Winter Olympics début. Voigt handed over as the leader, ahead of Sweden (0.5 seconds) and Italy (1.5 seconds). On the second leg, Vanessa Hinz had to reload twice for the last shot of the standing shooting and dropped to fourth place. Kristina Reztsova was first at the second exchange for the ROC with Italy’s Dorothea Wierer in second place.

Despite reloading four times, Hanna Öberg took the lead on the third leg. Italy’s youngest competitor, Samuela Comola, held on to second place. Svetlana Mironova had to go a penalty loop and dropped to third place. Germany started in fourth place, 45.9 seconds behind. Franziska Preuß, who could not compete for about two months prior to the Games due to an injury and COVID-19 infection, maintained their fourth place.

Elvira Öberg started the anchor leg with a lead of 26 seconds, and the Swede secured the gold medal, reloading just once in the final standing shooting. Federica Sanfilippo for Italy lost almost 90 seconds to the top teams and fell out of the medal ranking, finishing fifth. Uliana Nigmatullina had to reload just once, and took silver for the ROC. Olympic champion Denise Herrmann, Germany’s final runner, could never close the gap but was happy with bronze.

Heavy favourites Norway lost all chances early in the race, when their second runner, Tiril Eckhoff had to go two penalty loops and added 1:40 to Norway’s deficit, which was too much for the last two competitors to claw back.