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. She is the first female biathlete to win four Olympic medals in four different disciplines at any Winter Olympics. Prior to the pursuit, Roeiseland won gold in the mixed relay and women’s sprint, and bronze in the women’s 15km individual.
SEE MORE: Marte Olsbu Roeiseland wins women’s 7.5km biathlon sprint
The pressure was on Roeiseland from the beginning to ski fast on the course and shoot clean to maintain her lead over competitors. She delivered what was predicted of her and skied to the largest margin in women’s pursuit history. She finished the race in first at 34:46.9.
She started first in the pursuit event since she finished first in the sprint. Roeiseland began with a 31 second gap over Sweden’s Elvira Oeberg who ended the sprint in second and finished the pursuit in the same position. Oeberg won with silver 1:36.5 behind Roeiseland. Roeiseland was joined by teammate Tiril Eckhoff to round out the last step of the podium. Eckhoff finished 1:48.7 behind her compatriot and started in 11th.
Thin air, fast cross winds and blizarding 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 were struggling 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 came into 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 is not 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.
© 2024 KOBI-TV NBC5. All rights reserved unless otherwise stated.