The French biathlon team raced to gold in the mixed 4x6km relay Sunday at the Olympics, with host nation Italy chasing down the gap for a silver on home turf.
The high-action mixed relay set the stage for the ten following events at 2026 Milan Cortina Games. It was an outstanding performance by the French team of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet, Lou Jeanmonnot, and Julia Simon, who finished at 1:04:15. Italy finished 25.8 seconds back from France and Germany finished strong to win bronze.
Italy's Lisa Vittozzi shot clean in both of her two visits to the range and raced after Simon of France in the final leg, but France's lead was too great.
"I did a great relay, but it was a great team effort," Simon told French TV afterward. "I really enjoyed myself. I'm very, very happy with how I performed in this race."
"It's magical. I don't think I realize it yet, these are such huge events," her teammate Perrot said after securing gold in his maiden Olympic race.
Germany shot clean until the final visit to the range where Franziska Preuss missed but recovered to hold off a late Norwegian challenge for bronze.
The relay brought the Italian team one step closer to its dreams of gold in biathlon. Dorothea Wierer, who has won bronze at the last three Olympics, received extra cheers of approval for the silver medal.
Twenty teams raced in the mixed 4x6km biathlon relay — the only biathlon event that features men and women competing together. There are four athletes on each team (two men, two women) who ski 6km, shoot lying down, shoot standing, and then must tag their teammate to exchange turns.
The American mixed relay team, comprised of Campbell Wright, Maxime Germain, Irwin Deedra, and Margie Freed, placed 14th out of 21 nations, almost 3 and a half minutes off France's golden pace.
Reuters contribute to this report.