Biathlon 2018/Men's mass start

Men's mass start
General information
Sport	Biathlon 2018
Date	18 February 2018
Competitors	30 athletes
Venue	Alpensia Biathlon Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Emil Hegle Svendsen
Silver	Martin Fourcade
Bronze	Ondrej Moravec
Conditions
Temperature	-3°C / 26.6°F
Length	14986 metres
Height	37 metres
Medalists
	Martin Fourcade
	Simon Schempp
	Emil Hegle Svendsen

The men's mass start of Biathlon 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 18 February 2018 in the Alpensia Biathlon Centre. With 30 athletes competing, the event was won by Martin Fourcade from France, with Simon Schempp from Germany taking the silver medal and Emil Hegle Svendsen from Norway taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of five rounds of 3 kilometres, broken up by shooting at five targets. Each missed target causes the athlete to have to conduct an additional round of 150 meters. The competitor with the fastest time after 15 kilometres (or additional rounds) is the winner.

Preview

Thirty athletes qualified for the event, including all the nine medalists of the individual events of Biathlon 2018. The three Olympic champions Arnd Peiffer, Martin Fourcade, and Johannes Thingnes Boe would be in the spotlight once again, but also the silver medalists Michal Krcmar, Sebastian Samuelsson, and Jakov Fak would definitely not be without chances. The field also included Benedikt Doll and Tarjei Boe, who stood high in the World Cup standings, and Dominik Windisch and Dominik Landertinger, who had won bronze medals in the last week. Other outsiders included Simon Schempp, as the current world champion, and Emil Hegle Svendsen, as the defending Olympic champion, Jakov Fak, as the world champion of 2015, and Julian Eberhard, who finished fourth in the sprint event.

Results

The circumstances were definitely better than the days before, with a lot less wind and a soft temperature. Starting all at the same time, the race was controlled by Martin Fourcade, who had won the pursuit event a few days prior. The tempo was high, leaving the bunch stretched out, with Erik Lesser in last position, with gaps appearing throughout the group. Arriving at the first shooting round, the athletes were still together, with the shooting causing the first time differences. With sixteen out of thirty athletes missing at least one shot, the remaining fourteen would take a small lead going into the second lap. This group was lead by Timofei Lapshin, who represented the host country, followed by Jakov Fak, Benedikt Doll, and Dominik Windisch. Trying to catch up after his miss, Fourcade slipped but was able to recover quickly.

In the second lap, the leading thirteen had a lead of around 16 seconds over the second group, lead by Simon Desthieux, but this lead was closing fast. Benedikt Doll took the lead of the first group, in order to arrive at the second shooting round with a small lead, but the chasing group split up, with a few skiers able to catch the leading group, and others being left behind. Arriving at the second round of shooting prone, Sebastian Samuelsson arrived first, but the Germans Doll and Erik Lesser finished their round very quickly, taking a lead of 5 seconds over Fredrik Lindstroem, Erlend Bjoentegaard, Simon Schempp, Simon Eder, and Jakov Fak. Eight skiers were still without mistakes in shooting, which was not to say about one of the favorites Johannes Thingnes Boe, who missed three times in the second round.

With the third of five laps, the differences between the top half were still small, and the first groups came together as 12 skiers were bunched up in front, with another group very close behind. Closing up on the third round of shooting, eight skiers separated themselves from the leading group, being taken by the hand by the three Germans in the group Schempp, Doll, and Lesser. However, it was Martin Fourcade who came out of the shooting round first, while Doll missed one of his shots, leaving Schempp and Lesser following Fourcade. Behind Lesser, there was a small gap to Eder and another gap to Ondrej Moravec. Moravec had another lead of 17 seconds to a small group lead by Julian Eberhard, who would have to hope for a mistake of one of the leaders.

The penultimate lap started with the three men Fourcade, Schempp, and Lesser in front, while the gap with Eder and Moravec only increased. Coming up to the last round of shooting, the three remained in front, now with a lead of 30 seconds over Eder and Moravec, and 37 seconds over a small group following them. With three skiers far in front, any mistake could be costly, and while Lesser missed his third shot, Schempp equalled this by missing his fourth, while Fourcade missed his last shot. Lesser missed for a second time, leaving Schempp and Fourcade in a race for gold, if they were able to start the last lap before Eder and Moravec caught up. However, both Eder and Moravec, and Eberhard, who was behind them, did not shoot without mistakes. This left Fourcade and Schempp with a lead of 19 seconds over Benedikt Doll, who came back after his earlier mistake, and 21 seconds over Emil Hegle Svendsen and Lesser.

The last lap was the ultimate battle for gold, with Fourcade and Schempp, and bronze, with Doll, Svendsen, and Lesser. Simon Schempp was the current world champion of the event, while Martin Fourcade was among the best all-time biathletes, and the latter set a strong pace in the last lap. Behind them, the defending Olympic champion was fighting for a bronze medal against two German skiers. With only 500 metres to go, Fourcade once again tried to shake his compatriot off but failed to do so, while on the other hand, Svendsen tried to accelerate, dropping Doll. Fourcade and Schempp remained a fierce battle until the end, staying together until the final sprint, which ended in a photo finish, with both skiers tumbling over after the finish line, ultimately decided in favour of the Frenchman with less than half a foot. In the sprint for bronze, Svendsen won the sprint against Lesser, while Doll was not able to catch up anymore. Julian Eberhard finished after 30 seconds, while Erlend Bjoentegaard, Tarjei Boe, Jesper Nelin, and Jakov Fak were also in that group to complete the top 10.

Martin Fourcade won his first gold medal in the mass start, after winning a silver medal in Vancouver and in Sochi, and his sixth Olympic medal in total. Simon Schempp won his second Olympic medal, after winning a silver medal in the men's relay in 2014, while Emil Hegle Svendsen won his sixth medal at his third Olympic appearance. Erik Lesser finished just next to the podium and was not able to win his third Olympic medal, while Benedikt Doll was not able to follow up on his bronze medal in the pursuit a few days prior.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Misses	Time
	Martin Fourcade	France	2	35:47.3
	Simon Schempp	Germany	1	35:47.3
	Emil Hegle Svendsen	Norway	2	35:58.5
4	Erik Lesser	Germany	2	35:58.9
5	Benedikt Doll	Germany	1	36:06.1
6	Julian Eberhard	Austria	3	36:18.0
7	Erlend Bjoentegaard	Norway	2	36:19.4
8	Tarjei Boe	Norway	3	36:21.9
9	Jesper Nelin	Sweden	2	36:21.9
10	Jakov Fak	Slovenia	1	36:23.4
11	Ondrej Moravec	Czech Republic	1	36:23.6
12	Dominik Landertinger	Austria	1	36:47.3
13	Arnd Peiffer	Germany	4	36:47.5
14	Simon Eder	Austria	3	37:01.0
15	Fredrik Lindstroem	Sweden	3	37:02.6
16	Johannes Thingnes Boe	Norway	3	37:07.3
17	Dominik Windisch	Italy	4	37:07.7
18	Lukas Hofer	Italy	4	37:07.7
19	Antonin Guigonnat	France	5	37:15.3
20	Klemen Bauer	Slovenia	4	37:19.8
21	Tero Seppala	Finland	3	37:25.0
22	Simon Desthieux	France	5	37:45.9
23	Sebastian Samuelsson	Sweden	4	37:58.8
24	Serafin Wiestner	Switzerland	3	38:00.9
25	Timofei Lapshin	South Korea	1	38:07.4
26	Michal Krcmar	Czech Republic	5	38:09.9
27	Benjamin Weger	Switzerland	5	38:10.5
28	Andrejs Rastorgujevs	Latvia	3	38:47.4
29	Quentin Fillon Maillet	France	7	38:57.5
30	Tomas Kaukenas	Lithuania	5	38:58.0