Norwegian overcomes early crash to win

An early crash couldn’t keep Simen Hegstad Krueger from gold. His Norwegian teammates then helped complete a sweep in the cross-country ski race.

Krueger slipped when the mass start began and his right ski came out from under him, causing him to fall. Russian athletes Andrey Larkov and Denis Spitsov toppled over Krueger and the three ended up at the rear of the field by the time they untangled.

Krueger stormed back, though, and took the lead with 5 kilometers remaining and powered his way to gold. Norwegian teammates Martin Johnsrud Sundby and Hans Christer Holund completed the 1-2-3 finish.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — The two-man race between Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe for Olympic gold never materialized.

They have 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 on 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.

“I don’t know how this could happen,” Peiffer said. “The other two guys, Martin and Johannes, they were dominating the whole season. They were dominating with their ski time; they were dominating on the range as well. So I didn’t expect it was possible to be in front of them. I’m quite surprised.”

Thingnes Boe just shrugged his shoulders, offering no explanation for his performance.

“This is the biathlon and this is the Olympics,” he said. “It’s hard.”

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.

“We’re both not happy,” Thingnes Boe said. “I think the other athletes should be happy that we failed today.”

Michal Krcmar of the Czech Republic took silver and Dominik Windisch of Italy the bronze.