Marte Olsbu Roeiseland of Norway is on a winning streak at the 2022 Winter Olympics. She transferred her sprint success into pursuit gold to earn her fourth Olympic medal at these Games. Roeiseland is the first woman to win four biathlon medals at a single Olympics. Prior to the pursuit, Roeiseland won gold in the mixed relay and women’s sprint, and bronze in the women’s 15km individual.
The pressure was on Roeiseland from the beginning to ski fast on the course and shoot clean to maintain her lead. She delivered what was expected and skied to the largest margin of victory in women’s pursuit history, finishing the race in first with a time of 34:46.9.
She started first in the pursuit event since she finished first in the sprint. Roeiseland began with a 0:31-second gap over Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg, who ended the sprint in second and finished the pursuit in the same position. Oeberg finished in silver-medal position, 1:36.5 minutes behind Roeiseland. Roeiseland was joined by teammate Tiril Eckhoff to round out the last step of the podium. Eckhoff finished 1:48.7 minutes behind her compatriot after starting 11th.
Thin air, fast cross winds and blizzard conditions created challenges in the shooting range for athletes. Roeiseland started out strong with no missed targets in the first two prone shooting stages, but missed one target in the first standing stage. Eckhoff and Oeberg struggled with the conditions on the course and missed three targets. Roeiseland was in a category all by herself with a big lead and could afford to miss another target while still being able to earn the gold medal. She waved to spectators in the stands as she entered the home stretch to celebrate her historic win and cruised down to the line.
Now solidified as the “Queen of Biathlon,” Roeiseland skied and shot her way to biathlon history and isn't done yet. She has more opportunities to clinch gold in upcoming events including the women’s 4x6km relay and 12.5km mass start.
The women’s 4x6km relay takes place before the mass start and will begin on Feb. 16 at 2:45 a.m. ET.