OLYMPICS: Biathlon-Relay pressure relieved as lead-off woes turn to gold for France

ANTERSELVA, Italy – The relays at the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics once again proved some timeless truths about team races in biathlon: you can’t win a relay on the first leg, but you can certainly lose it. In the end, medals go to the teams that keep their cool under pressure.

Both the men’s and women’s relays saw France suffer rocky starts before staging remarkable comebacks to win gold, rescuing the teams from early setbacks caused by their first-leg racers.

“I was really disappointed after my race because one penalty loop in the relay is so bad,” French biathlete Camille Bened said after a poor shooting performance left teammate Lou Jeanmonnot with a mountain to climb on the second leg.

With all teams starting together, the opening leg often turns chaotic.

“It’s always like that. The first stretch is usually tight, depending on whether someone pushes hard to spread the field out, but the real race starts at the first prone shoot,” Swedish silver medalist Linn Gestblom told Reuters. “My goal today was to stay out of messy situations, avoid bumping people, clashing skis, or broken poles.”

In the women’s relay, the top teams endured a turbulent first leg, trading positions before France ultimately pulled ahead, thanks to a strong third leg from Oceane Michelon. Twenty-four hours earlier, her compatriot Emilien Jacquelin staged a similar comeback in the men’s relay.

“Even if the start isn’t great, you have to stay humble and give your best. Then anything is possible,” Jacquelin said after France climbed from last place on the opening leg to claim gold.

While a bad first leg can be overcome, anchoring a biathlon relay and shooting clean under Olympic pressure demands extraordinary courage.

Norway’s Maren Kirkeeide, just 22, was entrusted with the final leg of the mixed relay but faltered on the last shoot, costing her team a podium finish. She rebounded with gold and silver in solo events, and a bronze in the women’s relay.

“I thought about the mixed relay on the way into the shooting range, but I focused on what was happening now and did my best,” Kirkeeide said. “I hoped to do good races at the Olympics, but this has been much more than I expected.” -Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne/Reuters