The IBU World Cup in Oestersund, Sweden resumed competition with the women's 15km individual event.

103 biathletes battled head-to-head through relentless, howling wind conditions, which made for a very challenging day on the shooting range. Positioning on the leaderboard of the biathletes constantly changed throughout the race due to shooting difficulties across the board, which resulted in a thrilling first individual competition of the biathlon season.

Dorothea Wierer won gold for Italy in the women's 15km individual event with a time of 43:08. The victory was the 17th World Cup win of Wierer's career and her seventh individual win in the discipline. The Italian raced an unbelievable final stretch to close the gap and edge out Finland's Sonja Leinamo by just three tenths of a second.

The second-place finish for Leinamo was the first World Cup podium of her career. The Finnish biathlete shot 19 out of 20 on the range to make it a historic day for her country.

France's Camille Bened started off the day perfect from the range and captured the final podium spot after finishing 8.4 seconds behind Wierer. The second-place finish was Bened's first-ever individual World Cup podium.

Wierer's win is her fifth in Oestersund and builds excitement as she prepares for the Milan Cortina Olympics on her home course.

Team USA's Deedra Irwin led off the staggered-start race but quickly dropped to the back of the pack after only hitting one of five targets to start, which added four penalty minutes to her time early in the event. Irwin finished 69th but historically has had success in the 15km individual and finished in seventh place at the 2022 Beijing Olympics. American teammates Chloe Levins and Margie Freed finished 58th and 62nd, respectively.

Biathlon competition continues tomorrow in Oestersund with the men's 20km individual event.