They have brand-new biathlon facilities at the new Holmenkollen winter sports complex in Oslo, but that didn’t help Norway’s athletes in this week’s World Cup competition.
Not even multiple gold-medal winner Ole Einar Bjørndalen could save the day on Thursday. He wound up shooting so poorly that he barely made the cut for the 60 biathlon skiers qualified for Saturday’s events.
Emil Hegle Svendsen, who won gold in Vancouver at the recent Olympics, placed 15th. Tora Berger, who also won gold, placed 28th in the women’s competition.
No one could explain why the Norwegian athletes performed so poorly, and on home turf at that.
“No, but I didn’t have any good feeling,” Bjørndalen told newspaper Aftenposten. “It’s just terrible when it goes so ridiculously badly.” Lars Berger and Frode Andresen were equally disappointed by their performances in the men’s sprint won by Martin Fourcade of France who shared the winners’ podium with Maxim Tschoudov and Christoph of Austria.
Views and News staff
