Olympic biathlon race produces a stunner as favorites falter
The two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe for Olympic gold never materialized.
They’ve pretty much become the Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte of the biathlon — only they have skis and rifles instead of Speedos and swim caps.
So when neither landed on the medal podium Sunday at the Pyeongchang Games, it sent shockwaves through the biathlon world.
Fourcade, a Frenchman ranked No. 1 in the world, missed three of five shots from the prone position, forcing him to do three penalty laps. He finished eighth overall.
Thingnes Boe, the world’s No. 2, was even farther behind. The Norwegian missed three from the prone position and one from the standing position with his .22 caliber rifle and wound up a distant 31st, more than a minute behind the leader.
No one was more stunned than Germany’s Arnd Peiffer, who took home the gold medal after hitting all 10 of his targets.
Thingnes Boe just shrugged his shoulders, offering no explanation for his performance.
The 29-year-old Fourcade has been the sport’s most dominant competitor since the 2011-12 season, when he won the first of six straight World Cup titles.
He also won two golds and a silver at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Thingnes Boe has been battling him all the way this season, sometimes beating Fourcade, but often finishing second.
Thingnes Boe ended the Frenchman’s World Cup-winning streak on Jan. 15 with victory in the men’s 15-kilometer mass start. Fourcade bounced back to defeat Thingnes Boe the following week in the final race before the Olympics.
After Sunday’s race they shook hands, both discouraged by the stunning results.
Last week, Michael Roesch of Belgium put the biathlon competition in perspective, saying bluntly: “Right now there are two guys fighting for the podium. It’s Fourcade and Thingnes Boe — and then it’s the rest of the world.”
But on Sunday, the rest of the podium consisted of Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic in second and Dominik Windisch of Italy in third.