On a day when biathlon’s royalty mostly did what it was supposed to do, the U.S. team of Campbell Wright, Sean Doherty, Paul Schommer and Maxime Germain didn’t do too badly themselves.
In one of the glory events of any Olympics, France knocked off the mighty Norwegians in what some might consider a minor upset to take the gold medal in the 4×7.5 km. The Swedes grabbed the bronze. The Germans forgot how to shoot and took fourth.
But the Americans came up with arguably the biggest surprise of the day, delivering the best-ever performance from a U.S. biathlon relay team at the Olympics. The result is significant because biathlon is the one Winter Olympic sport in which the U.S. has never won a medal. Behind Wright, a talented native New Zealander with American parents, the U.S. is determined to get that elusive medal, if not this year then perhaps in 2030.
“We’ve struggled a little bit at these Olympics,” Wright said after the finish. “I think I’ve managed to get away with a few good results, but the other guys have caught the worst and the bad luck. So I’m really happy that we can get fifth as a team here and everyone can kind of get a win before the games finish.”
Things got off to a shaky start with Doherty missing four shots during his opening leg. But Germain, Shommer and Wright picked up, delivering solid shooting and consistent skiing, climbing from 16th place early on all the way up to fifth.
Skiing the anchor leg, Wright missed three shots lying down. However, he powered back into the chase pack, then flew through his final round of shooting, blasted out of the range in fifth and never looked back.
“I was pretty confident I could keep them behind because I’ve been skiing well,” he said. “I think we are the strongest men’s biathlon team from U.S. ever and I’m happy that we got a result to show it.”
There remains a ways to go. The Americans were 90 seconds back of the third-place Swedes, but progress is progress.
With heavy snow falling throughout the race, Wright began the anchor leg in 11th place and climbed from there over the next roughly 20 minutes. It was the best U.S. showing for a biathlon relay team since 1972.