1968 Winter Olympics / Biathlon

Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics
information
venue	Autrans Méaudre-en-Vercors
Competition venue	Autrans
Nations	16
Athletes	72 (72 )
date	12-15. February 1968
decisions	2
← Innsbruck 1964 Sapporo 1972 →

Two biathlon competitions were held at the X Olympic Games in Grenoble in 1968 . The venue was Autrans , the provisionally built target stadium was located southwest of the village. For the first time on the Olympic program was the relay competition.

The sport was still not recognized by everyone as an Olympic discipline, and critics continued. The shooting itself was put to the test because it reflected a military proximity. In addition, despite the rule change, the good shooters still have too much of an advantage over the good runners. But there were more supporters now. The expansion to a second discipline in the form of the relay contributed to its growing attractiveness. The rules had changed - see description for the individual competitions.

Balance sheet

Medal table

space	country				total
1	Soviet Union	1	1	1	3
2	Norway	1	1	-	2
3	Sweden	-	-	1	1

Medalist

competitor	gold	silver	bronze
Single 20 km	Magnar Solberg	Alexander Tikhonov	Vladimir Gundarzew
Relay 4 × 7.5 km	Alexander Tikhonov , Nikolai Pusanow , Viktor Mamatow , Vladimir Gundarzew	Ola Wærhaug , Olav Jordet , Magnar Solberg , Jon Istad	Lars-Göran Arwidson , Tore Eriksson , Olle Petrusson , Holmfrid Olsson

Results

Single 20 km

Olympic Champion 1964 : Vladimir Melanin URS (career ended) / World Champion 1967 : Viktor Mamatow (URS). 

space	country	athlete	Time (h)	error
1	NOR	Magnar Solberg	1: 13: 45.9	00
2	URS	Alexander Tikhonov	1: 14: 40.4	02
3	URS	Vladimir Gundarzew	1: 18: 27.4	02
4th	POLE	Stanisław Szczepaniak	1: 18: 56.8	01
5	FIN	Arve Kinnari	1: 19: 47.9	02
6th	URS	Nikolai Pushanov	1: 20: 14.5	03
7th	URS	Viktor Mamatov	1: 20: 20.8	01
8th	POLE	Stanislaw Łukaszczyk	1: 20: 28.1	04th
9	FIN	Kalevi Vähäkylä	1: 20: 56.5	03
10	GDR	Horst Koschka	1: 21: 37.7	03
12	FRG	Theo Merkel	1: 22: 10.5	04th
18th	GDR	Dieter Speer	1: 24: 13.3	06th
21st	GDR	Hansjörg Knauthe	1: 25: 04.9	02
24	GDR	Heinz Kluge	1: 26: 55.2	07th
32	FRG	Gerhard Gehring	1: 28: 26.8	08th
39	FRG	Xaver Kraus	1: 30: 40.2	12
40	AUT	Paul Ernst	1: 31: 47.9	06th
41	FRG	Herbert Hindelang	1: 31: 48.5	10
47	AUT	Horst Schneider	1: 33: 49.6	09
50	AUT	Adolf Scherwitzl	1: 34: 21.7	04th
56	AUT	Franz Vetter	1: 36: 25.0	10

Date: February 12, 1968, 9 a.m.
Total ascent: 620 m, maximum ascent: 58 m, difference in altitude: 125 m

60 participants from 16 countries, 59 of them in the rating.

The individual race took place under difficult conditions, because ice-cold rain fell almost non-stop, which severely impaired the accuracy of the shooters. Four times, five shots with biathlon rifles had to be fired from a distance of 150 m , lying after 3.6 and 12.5 km, standing after 8.5 and 17.4 km. The target diameter for prone shooting was 25 cm (inner circle 12.5 cm), for standing shooting 45 cm (inner circle 35 cm). If the outer circle was hit, the participant received one minute of penalty, and two minutes for a complete miss. Olympic champion Magnar Solberg, who competed outside of Scandinavia for the first time in a biathlon competition, was one of only two participants to fail clean. Tikhonov was the best runner, but two misses cost him the Olympic victory. The competition took place in light rain and temperatures above freezing point. As expected, the Austrians had no chance.

Relay 4 × 7.5 km

First held at the Olympic Games; World Champion 1967 : NOR ( Jon Istad
Ragnar Tveiten
Ola Wærhaug
Olav Jordet ).

space	country	athlete	Time (h)	error
1	URS	Alexander Tikhonov , Nikolai Pusanow , Viktor Mamatow , Vladimir Gundarzew	2: 13: 02.4	02
2	NOR	Ola Wærhaug , Olav Jordet , Magnar Solberg , Jon Istad	2: 14: 50.2	05
3	SWE	Lars-Göran Arwidson , Tore Eriksson , Olle Petrusson , Holmfrid Olsson	2: 17: 26.3	00
4th	POLE	Józef Różak , Andrzej Fiedor , Stanisław Łukaszczyk , Stanisław Szczepaniak	2: 20: 19.6	04th
5	FIN	Juhani Suutarinen , Heikki Flöjt , Kalevi Vähäkylä , Arve Kinnari	2: 20: 41.8	05
6th	GDR	Heinz Kluge , Hans-Gert Jahn , Horst Koschka , Dieter Speer	2: 21: 54.5	04th
7th	ROME	Gheorghe Cimpoia , Constantin Carabela , Nicolae Bărbășescu , Vilmoș Gheorghe	2: 25: 39.8	04th
8th	United States	Ralph Wakley , Edward Williams , Bill Spencer , John Ehrensbeck	2: 28: 35.8	08th
9	FRG	Herbert Hindelang , Theo Merkel , Xaver Kraus , Gerhard Gehring	2: 29: 56.6	06th
10	FRA	Daniel Claudon , Serge Legrand , Aimé Gruet-Masson , Jean-Claude Viry	2: 31: 12.9	10
11	AUT	Paul Ernst , Adolf Scherwitzl , Horst Schneider , Franz Vetter	2: 33: 47.1	10
12	GBR	Marcus Halliday , Alan Notley , Peter Tancock , Frederick Andrew	2: 34: 40.9	09
13	AUT	Isao Ono , Miki Shibuya , Shozo Okuyama , Hajime Yoshimura	2: 35: 21.0	09
	CAN	George Ede , Knowles McGill , George Rattai , Esko Karu	DNF

Date: February 15, 1968, 2 p.m.
Total ascent: 195 m
Maximum ascent: 50 m
Difference in altitude: 65 m

The start of the race had to be postponed by five and a half hours due to thick fog (there had already been a cancellation before the start was made after this period of time).
14 relays with four runners each took part, the Canadians gave up the race on the way. There were two shooting tests to be completed, standing after 2.5 km and lying after 5.0 km. For each test, five glass plates had to be hit from a distance of 150 m (diameter for prone shooting 12.5 cm, for standing shooting 30 cm), the shooters had eight cartridges each. A penalty loop of 150 m had to be completed for each target not hit. The only team without a miss was the one from Sweden, the best individual performance was achieved by Magnar Solberg in the third round.

literature

• The Olympic Games 1968 Mexico City Grenoble , published by Bertelsmann Sportredaktion in cooperation with the Sport-Informations-Dienst (sid), Gütersloh 1968, p. 66 f.

Web links

• Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Official report of the 1968 Winter Olympics (PDF; 19.4 MB)

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Olympic Games 1968 Mexico City Grenoble, ed. Bertelsmann Sportredaktion in cooperation with the Sport-Informations-Dienst (sid), Gütersloh 1968, p. 66 f.
2. ↑ «Missed shots cost victory» . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 13, 1968, p. 13 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).
3. ^ "Gold for the Soviet Union" . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna February 16, 1968, p. 15 ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).