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 time ...
relay competition at the
1976 Winter Olympics
The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XII Olympic Winter Games (german: XII. Olympische Winterspiele, french: XIIes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Innsbruck 1976 ( bar, Innschbruck 1976, label= Austro-Bavarian), was a ...
took place on 13 February, at
Seefeld Seefeld may refer to:
Places
* Seefeld in Tirol, a tourist resort in Tyrol, Austria
* Seefeld, Bavaria, a town in Starnberg, Bavaria, Germany
** Seefeld Castle
* Seefeld, Schleswig-Holstein, a municipality in Rendsburg-Eckernförde, Schleswig-Ho ...
. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing.
At each shooting station, a competitor has eight shots to hit five targets; however, only five bullets are loaded in a magazine at one - if additional shots are required, the spare bullets must be loaded one at a time. If after the eight shots are taken, there are still targets not yet hit, the competitor must ski a 150-metre penalty loop.
Summary
The Soviet Union had lost just one major championship in the last nine years, but it was also the most recent one, as they were beaten to the 1975 world championship by the Finns. The chances of this repeating were all but eliminated after the first leg, however; while
Aleksandr Elizarov
Aleksandr Matveyevich Elizarov (also Yelizarov) (russian: Александр Матвеевич Елизаров; born 7 March 1952) is a former Soviet biathlete. At the 1976 Winter Olympics
The 1976 Winter Olympics, officially known as the ...
went through in the fastest time, more than 30 seconds clear,
Henrik Flöjt
Henrik Flöjt (May 24, 1952, Kajaani – September 26, 2005) was a Finnish biathlete, world champion and Olympic medalist. He received a silver medal in 4 x 7.5 km relay at the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck
Innsbruck (; ba ...
missed a shot and finished the leg 7th, well over two minutes behind.
Esko Saira
Esko Saira (born June 14, 1938, in Lemi, South Karelia) is a Finnish biathlete and Olympic medalist. He received a silver medal at the 1972 Winter Olympics in Sapporo with the Finnish team.Josef Keck took three penalties, and left Finland with a big gap, which they easily took to a silver medal. East Germany had been floundering in 7th after three legs, as
Frank Ullrich
Frank Ullrich (, ; born 24 January 1958) is a German politician of the SPD and former biathlete and trainer of the German national team. Since 2021, he has been a member of the Bundestag.
Career
Biathlon was in Ullrich's family as his fath ...
struggled with her shooting, taking four penalties. However,
Manfred Geyer
Manfred Geyer (born 23 May 1951, in Altenfeld) is a former German biathlete. During his career, he won a bronze medal in the 1976 Winter Olympics in the 4 x 7.5 km relay and two more bronze medals in the 1973 and 1977 Biathlon Worl ...
shot clear and had the second fastest leg overall, pulling them up past four teams to get the bronze medal.
Results
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biathlon at the 1976 Winter Olympics - Relay
Relay
A relay
Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts
An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off
A relay is an electrically operated switch ...