The men's 20 kilometre individual

biathlon The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not tim ...

competition at the

1968 Winter Olympics The 1968 Winter Olympics, officially known as the X Olympic Winter Games (french: Les Xes Jeux olympiques d'hiver), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 18 February 1968 in Grenoble, France. Thirty-seven countries participated. Frenchm ...

was held on 12 February, at

Autrans Autrans () is a former commune in the Isère department in the Rhône-Alpes region of south-eastern France. On 1 January 2016, it was merged into the new commune of Autrans-Méaudre-en-Vercors. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, it hosted ...

. Each miss of the target cost two minutes, while hitting the outer circle cost one minute.

Results

Two relatively inexperienced biathletes dominated the individual event.

Magnar Solberg Magnar Solberg (born 4 February 1937) is a former Norwegian biathlete and police officer. He won a gold medal in the 20 km at the 1968 and 1972 Winter Olympics; his 4 × 7.5 km relay teams placed second in 1968 and fourth in 1972. In 1 ...

was one of only two men to shoot clear, and had the second fastest ski time, more than two minutes faster than the third best time.

Aleksandr Tikhonov Alexander Ivanovich Tikhonov (russian: Александр Иванович Тихонов; born 2 January 1947) is a former Soviet- Russian biathlete. On 23 July 2007, he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to three ...

skied a minute faster than Solberg, but took two minutes in penalties, and ended up with silver, nearly four minutes ahead of their closest pursuer. Vladimir Gundartsev took bronze for the Soviet union, two minutes in penalties complementing the fifth-fastest ski time. Defending world champion

Viktor Mamatov Viktor Fyodorovich Mamatov (russian: Виктор Фёдорович Маматов; born 21 July 1937) is a former Soviet Union, Soviet Biathlon, biathlete. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, he won a gold medal with the Soviet relay team. ...

, and world silver medalist Stanisław Szczepaniak each took just one minute in penalties, but their ski times left them on the outside of the medals, Szczepaniak in 4th and Mamatov in 7th.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics - Individual

Individual An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own Maslow ...