Biathlon 2022/Women's relay

Women's relay
General information
Sport	Biathlon 2022
Date	16 February 2022
Competitors	20 teams
Venue	Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre
Previous medalists
Gold	Belarus
Silver	Sweden
Bronze	France
Medalists
	Sweden
	ROC
	Germany

The women's relay of Biathlon 2022 during the 2022 Winter Olympics was held on 16 February 2022 in the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. With 20 teams competing, the event was won by the team from Sweden, with ROC taking the silver medal and Germany taking bronze.

Format

The competition exists out of each athlete conducting three rounds of 2 kilometres, broken up by shooting at five targets. Each athlete has up to three additional shots for each round, and each missed target afterwards causes the athlete to have to conduct an additional round of 150 meters. The team with the fastest time after 4x6 kilometres is the winner.

Preview

Twenty teams qualified for the event with France as the leader of the World Cup, ahead of ROC, Sweden, and Norway. Despite the French team being the absolute favorite for the title, the Swedish athletes had performed better in the sprint events, including two silver medals, while Norway took gold with Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, as well as two bronze medals. Germany also featured an Olympic champion, with Italy also having won a medal. Belarus was the defending Olympic champion, with Czech Republic and Ukraine among the outsiders.

Home competitor Ding Yuhuan was the youngest in the field at the age of 18, five months younger than Lora Hristova. Ding was no less than three years younger than Amy Baserga, who was the only other biathlete to have been born after 1 January 2000. Selina Gasparin was the most experienced competitor in the field, making her fourth Olympic appearance at the age of 37, a year older than Nastassia Kinnunen, who was up to make her third edition of the Olympic Games. Aside from Gasparin, only two others had competed at every edition of the Olympic Games since 2010: Mari Eder and Fuyuko Tachizaki.

Results

Sweden recorded their best result in the women's biathlon relay yet and won their first-ever gold medal in the event, after they won silver in 2018. Mona Brorsson and Linn Persson won their second Olympic medals after their silver relay medal of 2018, while Hanna Oeberg won her third Olympic medal after she also won a gold medal in the individual distance in 2018. Her younger sister Hanna Oeberg made her Olympic debut in 2022 but already won her third Olympic medal, after silver medals in the sprint event as well as the pursuit. The team representing the ROC won the silver medal in the event, after Uliana Nigmatullina and Kristina Reztsova also won a bronze medal in the mixed relay. Germany won their first medal in the event since 2010, with most of the team members also winning their first Olympic medals. Denise Herrmann achieved her third podium place, after an Olympic title in the individual distance and a bronze medal in the cross-country skiing women's relay in 2014. Norway missed out on the medals by over 10 seconds, though still at considerable distance from Italy, 2018 bronze medalists France, and Ukraine in the top 7 of the women's relay.

Result	Team	Penalty	Time
	Sweden	0	1:11:03.9
	ROC	1	1:11.15.9
	Germany	0	1:11.41.3
4	Norway	2	1:11:54.6
5	Italy	0	1:12:37.0
6	France	0	1:13:16.9
7	Ukraine	1	1:14:04.1
8	Czech Republic	1	1:14:06.0
9	Austria	3	1:15:07.6
10	Canada	0	1:15:34.3
11	United States	2	1:15:51.3
12	China	1	1:16:11.5
13	Belarus	5	1:16:34.4
14	Poland	1	1:17:12.1
15	Estonia	7	LAP
16	Finland	4	LAP
17	Japan	4	LAP
18	Bulgaria	2	LAP
19	Slovakia	4	LAP
20	Switzerland	DNF