Biathlon at the 1984 Winter Olympics – Relay

The Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometre biathlon relay competition at the 1984 Winter Olympics 17 February, at Igman - Veliko Polke. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing.[1][2]

Men's biathlon relay
at the XIV Olympic Winter Games
VenueIgman - Veliko Polke
DatesFebruary 17
Competitors68 from 17 nations
Winning time1:38:51.7
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s)  Soviet Union
Dmitry Vasilyev
Juri Kashkarov
Algimantas Šalna
Sergei Bulygin
2nd place, silver medalist(s)  Norway
Odd Lirhus
Eirik Kvalfoss
Rolf Storsveen
Kjell Søbak
3rd place, bronze medalist(s)  West Germany
Ernst Reiter
Walter Pichler
Peter Angerer
Fritz Fischer
← 1980
1988 →

At each shooting station, a competitor has eight shots to hit five targets; however, only five bullets are loaded in a magazine at one - if additional shots are required, the spare bullets must be loaded one at a time. If after the eight shots are taken, there are still targets not yet hit, the competitor must ski a 150-metre penalty loop.[3]

Summary

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The Soviet Union, the reigning world champions, and having never lost this event in the Olympics, and East Germany, which had won four consecutive world titles before the Soviets took the title in 1983, were the main favourites. Dmitry Vasilyev gave the Soviets a lead of more than a minute after the first leg. The East Germans cut the lead to thirty seconds after the second leg, while Norway, which had started disastrously, with Odd Lirhus taking two penalty loops, had sprint champion Eirik Kvalfoss move them up to third.[1]

The East Germans then moved ahead on the third leg, after Algimantas Šalna had to go on the penalty loop twice himself. However, Frank Ullrich, winner of 9 world championship gold medals, and three medals at the last Olympics, struggled with his skiing, only having the 10th fastest leg, and leaving his team fourth. For the Soviets, it was another story, Sergei Bulygin shooting clear and skiing a quick leg to win his side gold. They held off a hard charge from the Norwegians, as Kjell Søbak followed his teammate Kvalfoss in putting up the fastest leg to earn silver. Individual champion Peter Angerer had put the West Germans third going into the final leg, and while Fritz Fischer did not make up ground on the Soviets, they did move into bronze position by passing their East German opponents.[1]

Results

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[1]

Rank Bib Team Penalties (P+S) Result Deficit
  3   Soviet Union
Dmitry Vasilyev
Juri Kashkarov
Algimantas Šalna
Sergei Bulygin
2+9
0+1 0+1
0+3 0+0
0+1 2+3
0+0 0+0
1:38:51.7
24:52.4
24:34.8
25:17.8
24:06.7
  6   Norway
Odd Lirhus
Eirik Kvalfoss
Rolf Storsveen
Kjell Søbak
2+10
0+1 2+3
0+0 0+2
0+1 0+1
0+0 0+2
1:39:03.9
26:56.2
23:27.6
24:46.5
23:53.6
+12.2
  13   West Germany
Ernst Reiter
Walter Pichler
Peter Angerer
Fritz Fischer
1+9
0+0 0+0
0+2 1+3
0+0 0+0
0+2 0+2
1:39:05.1
26:01.9
25:13.5
23:39.3
24:10.4
+13.4
4 5   East Germany
Holger Wick
Frank-Peter Roetsch
Matthias Jacob
Frank Ullrich
1+9
0+0 1+3
0+0 0+0
0+0 0+3
0+1 0+2
1:40:04.7
26:01.2
23:52.6
24:32.8
25:38.1
+1:13.0
5 7   Italy
Adriano Darioli
Gottlieb Taschler
Johann Passler
Andreas Zingerle
0+9
0+0 0+3
0+0 0+1
0+1 0+3
0+0 0+1
1:42:32.8
26:14.3
25:43.5
25:50.4
24:44.6
+3:41.1
6 9   Czechoslovakia
Jaromír Šimůnek
Zdeněk Hák
Peter Zelinka
Jan Matouš
4+11
0+2 0+0
0+2 0+1
0+0 1+3
0+0 3+3
1:42:40.5
25:59.5
25:06.4
26:16.2
25:18.4
+3:48.8
7 16   Finland
Keijo Tiitola
Toivo Mäkikyrö
Arto Jääskeläinen
Tapio Piipponen
2+10
0+2 0+0
0+1 1+3
0+1 1+3
0+0 0+0
1:43:16.0
25:58.9
26:08.4
26:29.9
24:38.8
+4:24.3
8 2   Austria
Rudolf Horn
Walter Hörl
Franz Schuler
Alfred Eder
1+11
0+1 0+1
1+3 0+0
0+1 0+3
0+0 0+2
1:43:28.1
26:17.2
25:48.6
26:18.7
25:03.6
+4:36.4
9 17   France
Francis Mougel
Éric Claudon
Yvon Mougel
Christian Poirot
3+10
2+3 0+2
0+0 0+0
1+3 0+2
0+0 0+0
1:43:57.6
27:23.6
25:36.1
26:22.9
24:35.0
+5:05.9
10 11   Sweden
Sven Fahlén
Tommy Höglund
Roger Westling
Ronnie Adolfsson
2+14
0+3 1+3
0+0 0+1
0+2 0+0
0+2 1+3
1:44:28.2
27:02.0
25:23.4
26:04.9
25:57.9
+5:36.5
11 4   United States
Bill Carow
Donald Nielsen, Jr.
Lyle Nelson
Josh Thompson
0+12
0+1 0+3
0+3 0+3
0+0 0+1
0+1 0+0
1:44:31.9
27:23.9
26:42.7
24:58.2
25:27.1
+5:40.2
12 12   Great Britain
Jim Wood
Patrick Howdle
Tony McLeod
Charles MacIvor
0+13
0+1 0+0
0+1 0+2
0+1 0+3
0+3 0+2
1:46:17.2
27:11.6
26:20.1
26:11.1
26:34.4
+7:25.5
13 10   Romania
Vladimir Todaşcă
Mihai Rădulescu
Imre Lestyan
Gheorghe Berdar
2+6
0+0 0+0
0+0 0+1
0+0 0+1
2+3 0+1
1:47:44.8
26:35.8
26:33.5
26:42.1
27:53.4
+8:53.1
14 1   Hungary
János Spisák
Gábor Mayer
László Palácsik
Zsolt Kovács
4+13
0+1 0+1
0+1 1+3
1+3 2+3
0+0 0+1
1:48:40.0
26:57.5
26:34.4
29:03.7
26:04.4
+9:48.3
15 14   Japan
Isao Yamase
Shoichi Kinoshita
Yoshinobu Murase
Hiroyuki Deguchi
1+16
0+2 1+3
0+2 0+2
0+2 0+3
0+0 0+2
1:51:43.1
29:08.6
27:35.1
27:31.5
27:27.9
+12:51.4
16 15   China
Sun Xiaoping
Long Yunzhou
Liu Hongwang
Song Yongjun
0+11
0+1 0+2
0+0 0+2
0+3 0+1
0+1 0+1
1:53:04.1
28:54.4
28:09.1
28:27.0
27:33.6
+14:12.4
17 8   Yugoslavia
Andrej Lanišek
Jure Velepec
Zoran Ćosić
Franjo Jakovac
3+15
0+2 0+2
0+1 1+3
0+1 1+3
0+0 1+3
1:54:13.8
28:28.7
28:32.2
28:30.5
28:42.4
+15:22.1

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Sarajevo 1984 Official Report" (PDF). Organising Committee of the XlVth Winter Olympic Games 1984 at Sarajevo. LA84 Foundation. 1984. Retrieved September 20, 2013.
  2. ^ "Biathlon at the 1984 Sarajevo Winter Games: Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometres Relay". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 5 June 2019.
  3. ^ Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics. New York: The Overlook Press. p. 320. ISBN 1-58567-185-1.