ANTERSELVA, Italy -- In her Olympic debut, Maren Kirkeeide of Norway bested two Frenchwomen to take gold in a snowy women's 7.5-kilometer sprint biathlon race at the Milan Cortina Winter Games on Saturday.
Kirkeeide cleared all 10 of her shots and crossed the finish line in 20 minutes, 40.8 seconds. Oceane Michelon of France also shot clean and came in 3.8 seconds behind. Lou Jeanmonnot missed one shot but held on for a podium position, 23.7 seconds back.
Jeanmonnot has stood on the podium in every race she has entered so far in these Winter Games. She took silver in the 15-kilometer individual race Wednesday and joined Julia Simon, Eric Perrot and Quentin Fillon Maillet to take gold in the mixed relay Sunday.
Kirkeeide said her goal for this season was to race in the Olympics, so winning gold was an incredible achievement.
"I wanted to try my best, and I got some positive feedback from the coaches, and then I got some extra motivation, and it helped me all the way to the finish line," Kirkeeide said. "You never know how fast the other ones are going. I just tried to do my best. And I would also be really happy with a silver medal, but it's amazing to be able to take the gold."
Kirkeeide's win was in sharp contrast to her performance in the individual race, where she missed five targets and finished 49th. She said her teammates helped her through it.
Michelon said it was great to share these results with a strong French team. She also won silver in last year's world championships mass start race.
"It's amazing," she said. "It's my very first race in the Olympics. Today I enjoy this party. I'm just really happy about it."
Jeanmonnot said the light snow falling made for great conditions but that the race was more difficult than the individual on Wednesday.
"Mentally on the shooting range I wasn't able to stay focused on my shooting and not on results," she said. "I'm quite happy about getting a medal today because I was not expecting it."
Her teammate, Simon, missed two of her standing shots and finished a disappointing 34th, 1:55.8 behind Kirkeeide.
Also disappointed was Italy's Lisa Vittozzi, who hit all of her targets but finished fifth, 40.6 seconds back.
"I gave everything, but it wasn't enough," she said. "I am satisfied because I couldn't have done more than this. After the first shooting, I was already 15 seconds behind, which is honestly quite strange. So I will have to analyze what did not work today, but I gave it all until the end. But I cannot throw a fifth place away."
Reigning biathlon sprint champion Marte Olsbu Røiseland has retired. Elvira Oeberg of Sweden took silver in the sprint at the Beijing Olympics, while Dorothea Wierer of Italy won bronze.
This time out, Oeberg missed two shots and finished 27th in the sprint race. Wierer missed three and came in 44th.
The sprint race is the shortest biathlon discipline. Racers head out at 30-second intervals and ski three, 2.5-kilometer loops, shooting once in the prone position and once standing. Biathletes must ski a 150-meter penalty lap for each miss.
Only the top 60 biathletes finishing the sprint race can participate in the pursuit race, which takes place on Sunday. Time gaps are critical in the sprint, because racers in the pursuit go out in the seconds-back order based on their sprint finish.
