Biathlon 2018/Women's 15 km

Women's 15 km
General information
Sport	Biathlon 2018
Date	15 February 2018
Competitors	87 athletes
Venue	Alpensia Biathlon Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Darya Domracheva
Silver	Selina Gasparin
Bronze	Nadezhda Skardino
Conditions
Temperature	0°C / 32°F
Length	14986 metres
Height	37 metres
Medalists
	Hanna Oeberg
	Anastasiya Kuzmina
	Laura Dahlmeier

The women's 15 km of Biathlon 2018 during the 2018 Winter Olympics was held on 15 February 2018 in the Alpensia Biathlon Centre. With 87 athletes competing, the event was won by Hanna Oeberg from Sweden, with Anastasiya Kuzmina from Slovakia taking the silver medal and Laura Dahlmeier from Germany taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of five rounds of 3.0 kilometres, broken up by shooting at five targets. The athletes started 30 seconds from each other, each missed target causing a minute penalty. The competitor with the fastest time after 15 kilometres is the winner.

Preview

Eighty-seven athletes qualified for the event, with Laura Dahlmeier as the woman to beat, after she won the gold medal in both individual events so far. But competition was fierce, from example from Darya Domracheva, who had won two consecutive medals in this event, and was the defending Olympic champion. Kaisa Makarainen and Dorothea Wierer may not have been the favorites for gold, but they were also definitely in contention for a medal. Anastasiya Kuzmina was in possession of four Olympic medals and would be looking to earn her next, after she won the silver medal in the pursuit a few days prior. Anais Bescond, Marte Olsbu, and Veronika Vitkova were the other medalists so far, and should definitely be counted among the pre-race favorites. With favorites spread out through the field, there was always something to watch out for, including the remaining defending medalists Elisa Gasparin and Nadezhda Skardino. If someone was without (many) mistakes, chances were that they would set themselves in the front of the field.

Results

The fastest first lap was conducted by Anastasiya Kuzmina, once again showing her speed after her silver medal in the sprint event. She was also one of the fastest shooters and retained her lead in the race. Among the other fast skiers, only a few were able to remain faultless to stay in front. Justine Braisaz lost almost 90 seconds after missing a shot, favorite Laura Dahlmeier also lost just over a minute, just like Tiril Eckhoff. Dorothea Wierer was the first chaser on 11 seconds, and had another lead after Lena Haecki, Kaisa Makarainen, Mona Brorsson, Marte Olsbu, and Nicole Gontier all missed shots. Hanna Oeberg and Baiba Bendika, were 20 seconds behind Kuzmina, with another cluster following with Franziska Preuss, Weronika Nowakowska, Susan Dunklee, Franziska Hildebrand, and Darya Domracheva.

Kuzmina also skied to the fastest time of the second lap, but her position was in jeopardy after she missed a shot. Her lead was ultimately taken by Oeberg and later Domracheva, but still remained third on 14 seconds. Preuss also remained in the front of the field, just like Nowakowska, all within 30 seconds of Domracheva. Veteran Anja Erzen joined the top 10 after remaining without mistakes in shooting, just like Valj Semerenko, Alexia Runggaldier, and Nadezhda Skardino. Laura Dahlmeier recovered from her mistake to settle on less than a minute from Domracheva, while Wierer was set back to 11th place. Urska Poje, Ekaterina Avvakumova, Natalja Kocergina, and Daniela Kadeva were also still within a minute. Celia Aymonier had the fourth-fastest skiing time of the second lap, but had made too many mistakes to make a difference.

A similar story unfolded in the third lap, with Kuzmina once again taking the fastest time. However, she once again missed one of her shots, losing a lot of valuable time. Oeberg took the lead after Domracheva missed her first shot, and she now had a lead of 20 seconds over Preuss, who was slower on skis, but shot well. Dahlmeier, Nowakowska, and Wierer completed the top 6 with Kuzmina, while Erzen, Domracheva, Skardino, and Semerenko were all still within a minute of the leader.

Kuzmina had the fastest course time for the fourth lap in a row, and climbed from 6th to 3rd place in the last round of shooting. Oeberg retained her lead after yet another faultless round of shooting, and had a lead of 30 seconds over Dahlmeier with only a single lap to go. The battle between Dahlmeier and Kuzmina would be more exciting, with only 5 seconds between them, but the latter getting the fastest times in the previous four laps. Preuss was also another 3 seconds behind Kuzmina and still had a chance for a medal. Paulina Fialkova was the only other athlete within a minute by skiing faster times in each lap, and she had another lead of 30 seconds to Monika Hojnisz, who climbed from 13th to 6th place. Wierer missed a shot and had to let go of her chances on a medal, while Urska Poje, who compensated her slower times with excellent shooting, completed the top 8. Eckhoff, Makarainen, and Domracheva also had fast lap times, but made too many mistakes in the shooting.

Kuzmina also had the fastest time of the last lap, but was not able to close the gap to Oeberg, who had 25 seconds left. She was able to clinch the silver medal from Dahlmeier, who lost 20 seconds in the last lap to win bronze. Preuss was able to finish within a minute of Oeberg, but only kept a lead of 3 seconds over Fialkova, who had one of the fastest final sprints. Hojnisz finished almost another minute behind, with Wierer and Elisa Gasparin completing the top 8. Oeberg, Preuss, and 12th-placed Poje were the only three athletes to remain without misses.

Hanna Oeberg won her first Olympic medal, after finishing in the top 10 in the sprint and the pursuit at her Olympic debut. Anastasiya Kuzmina won her fifth Olympic medal in three Olympic appearances, and her second silver medal in Pyeongchang, after getting second place in the pursuit. Laura Dahlmeier won her third medal in three events in 2018, after winning both the sprint and the pursuit in a week. Franziska Preuss finished just outside of the podium in her best Olympic result ever, just like Paulina Fialkova in her second Olympic appearance. Linn Persson was the best debutant in 11th place.

Result	Athlete	Nationality	Misses	Time
	Hanna Oeberg	Sweden	0	41:07.2
	Anastasiya Kuzmina	Slovakia	2	41:31.9
	Laura Dahlmeier	Germany	1	41:48.4
4	Franziska Preuss	Germany	0	42:06.9
5	Paulina Fialkova	Slovakia	1	42:09.5
6	Monika Hojnisz	Poland	1	43:02.0
7	Dorothea Wierer	Italy	2	43:15.8
8	Elisa Gasparin	Switzerland	1	43:22.4
9	Franziska Hildebrand	Germany	1	43:38.6
10	Nadezhda Skardino	Belarus	1	43:40.2
11	Linn Persson	Sweden	1	43:41.5
12	Urska Poje	Slovenia	0	43:52.7
13	Kaisa Makarainen	Finland	3	43:57.9
14	Mona Brorsson	Sweden	2	44:13.8
15	Tatiana Akimova	Olympic Athletes from Russia	2	44:17.6
16	Ekaterina Avvakumova	South Korea	1	44:25.3
17	Maren Hammerschmidt	Germany	3	44:28.0
18	Veronika Vitkova	Czech Republic	3	44:31.5
19	Susan Dunklee	United States	2	44:33.5
20	Yuliia Dzhima	Ukraine	2	44:33.9
21	Weronika Nawokowska	Poland	2	44:34.6
22	Joanne Firesteel Reid	United States	1	44:41.3
23	Tiril Eckhoff	Norway	4	44:41.9
24	Uliana Kaisheva	Olympic Athletes from Russia	2	44:47.9
25	Valj Semerenko	Ukraine	1	44:53.9
26	Rosanna Crawford	Canada	2	44:55.9
27	Darya Domracheva	Belarus	4	44:57.8
28	Anais Chevalier	France	3	45:01.9
29	Sarah Beaudry	Canada	1	45:05.6
30	Natalja Kocergina	Lithuania	1	45:09.1
31	Anais Bescond	France	3	45:10.9
32	Lisa Vittozzi	Italy	3	45:11.8
33	Alexia Runggaldier	Italy	2	45:15.0
34	Lena Haecki	Switzerland	4	45:22.5
35	Anja Erzen	Slovenia	3	45:22.9
36	Iryna Kryuko	Belarus	3	45:26.0
37	Anna Magnusson	Sweden	2	45:27.2
38	Nicole Gontier	Italy	4	45:32.5
39	Baiba Bendika	Latvia	4	45:32.8
40	Synnoeve Solemdal	Norway	2	45:33.0
41	Lisa Theresa Hauser	Austria	3	45:35.4
42	Mari Laukkanen	Finland	4	46:03.7
43	Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold	Norway	3	46:14.7
44	Eva Puskarcikova	Czech Republic	3	46:22.0
45	Galina Vishnevskaya	Kazakhstan	3	46:23.4
46	Olga Poltoranina	Kazakhstan	2	46:36.5
47	Alina Raikova	Kazakhstan	3	46:37.4
48	Celia Aymonier	France	5	46:40.3
49	Laura Toivanen	Finland	3	46:42.6
50	Johanna Talihaerm	Estonia	3	46:44.0
51	Darya Klimina	Kazakhstan	3	46:44.4
52	Krystyna Guzik	Poland	4	46:49.5
53	Daniela Kadeva	Bulgaria	3	46:52.7
54	Emma Lunder	Canada	3	46:56.6
55	Justine Braisaz	France	5	46:57.2
56	Dzinara Alimbekava	Belarus	4	47:04.0
57	Marketa Davidova	Czech Republic	5	47:06.7
58	Dunja Zdouc	Austria	2	47:09.0
59	Zhang Yan	China	4	47:29.6
60	Katharina Innerhofer	Austria	5	47:34.9
61	Anna Frolina	South Korea	5	47:50.4
62	Clare Egan	United States	4	48:00.8
63	Vita Semerenko	Ukraine	5	48:03.8
64	Ivona Fialkova	Slovakia	6	48:04.4
65	Selina Gasparin	Switzerland	5	48:07.4
66	Tang Jialin	China	2	48:12.0
67	Emily Dreissigacker	United States	4	48:16.4
68	Aita Gasparin	Switzerland	5	48:26.2
69	Suvi Minkkinen	Finland	4	48:27.7
70	Anastasiya Merkushyna	Ukraine	6	48:42.0
71	Marte Olsbu	Norway	7	48:58.8
72	Jessica Jislova	Czech Republic	5	49:00.6
73	Amanda Lightfoot	Great Britain	6	49:14.7
74	Julia Ransom	Canada	5	49:38.9
75	Diana Rasimoviciute	Lithuania	5	49:53.3
76	Fuyuko Tachizaki	Japan	7	50:06.9
77	Stefani Popova	Bulgaria	5	50:20.3
78	Mun Ji-hee	South Korea	7	50:21.5
79	Desislava Stoyanova	Bulgaria	7	50:25.9
80	Yurie Tanaka	Japan	5	50:28.0
81	Asuka Hachisuka	Japan	4	50:30.2
82	Emilia Yordanova	Bulgaria	6	50:56.3
83	Magdalena Gwizdon	Poland	8	51:49.7
84	Eva Tofalvi	Romania	7	52:13.7
85	Sari Furuya	Japan	9	53:11.0
86	Jung Ju-mi	South Korea	6	53:32.8
87	Terezia Poliakova	Slovakia	10	54:46.3