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 ti ...

competition at the

1972 Winter Olympics The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially the and commonly known as Sapporo 1972 (), were a winter multi-sport event held from February 3 to 13, 1972, in Sapporo, Hokkaido Prefecture, Japan. It was the first Winter Olympic Games to take place outside ...

was held on 9 February, at

Makomanai Biathlon Site Makomanai Park (真駒内公園) is a city park in Minami-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It is home to attractions such as Makomanai Open Stadium, Makomanai Ice Arena and the Sapporo Salmon Museum. It also contains a small gymnasium, restaurant an ...

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

Summary

Alexander Tikhonov Alexander Ivanovich Tikhonov (; born 2 January 1947) is a former Soviet-Russian biathlete. He is a four-time Olympic champion, winning his gold medals in relays. On 23 July 2007, he was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and senten ...

and

Dieter Speer Dieter Speer (born 24 February 1942) is a former East German biathlete. He was the first German to hold the title when he became world champion in biathlon in 1971, beating the outstanding Alexander Tikhonov over 20 kilometres. Tikhonov could ...

, who between them had the last three world titles, were two of the fastest skiers, but neither managed to medal; Speer took seven minutes of penalties to put himself out of contention, and Tikhonov was unable to recover from three penalties on the first shoot, as he managed to get back to 4th place, but finished more than twenty seconds clear of the medalists. The winner was the defending Olympic champion

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 ...

. Solberg led early, and limited his penalties to only two, one of the better rounds of the day. Silver went to

Hansjörg Knauthe Hansjörg Knauthe (born 13 July 1944) is a retired East German biathlete 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 ...

, who was one of only two men to receive only one shooting penalty.

Lars-Göran Arwidson Lars-Göran Arwidson (born 4 April 1946) is a Swedish biathlete who competed at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics. At the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble, he won a bronze medal in the 4×7.5 km relay, and finished 17th in the 20 ...

took bronze, holding off Tikhonov by 30 seconds. Finland's

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