Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics – Relay
| Men's biathlon relay at the X Olympic Winter Games | |
| Venue | Autrans |
|---|---|
| Dates | February 15 |
| Competitors | 56 from 14 nations |
| Winning time | 2:13:02.4 |
| Medalists | |
| Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics  | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | men | |||
| Relay | men | |||
The Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometre biathlon relay competition at the 1968 Winter Olympics took place on 15 February, at Autrans. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing. This was the first time the biathlon relay was contested in the Olympic program.[1]
Results
Norway had won the first two official relay competitions at the Biathlon World Championships, but in Grenoble they were forced to ski five penalty loops while the Soviet Union skied only two, allowing the Soviets to pull away to win by almost two minutes. Sweden didn't go on the penalty loop at all, the only team to do so, and while their skiing couldn't match the top two, they did manage to finish in the bronze medal spot, just as they had in the two previous world championship relays.[1]
| Rank | Team | Penalties | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
 | .svg.png){kind=small} Soviet UnionAleksandr Tikhonov Nikolay Puzanov Viktor Mamatov Vladimir Gundartsev | 2 | 2:13:02.4 |
 |  NorwayOla Wærhaug Olav Jordet Magnar Solberg Jon Istad | 5 | 2:14:50.2 |
 |  SwedenLars-Göran Arwidson Tore Eriksson Olle Petrusson Holmfrid Olsson | 0 | 2:17:26.3 |
| 4 | .svg.png){kind=small} PolandJózef Różak Andrzej Fiedor Stanisław Łukaszczyk Stanisław Szczepaniak | 4 | 2:20:18.6 |
| 5 |  FinlandJuhani Suutarinen Heikki Flöjt Kalevi Vähäkylä Arve Kinnari | 5 | 2:20:41.8 |
| 6 | .svg.png){kind=small} East GermanyHeinz Kluge Hans-Gert Jahn Horst Koschka Dieter Speer | 4 | 2:21:54.5 |
| 7 | .svg.png){kind=small} RomaniaGheorghe Cimpoia Constantin Carabela Nicolae Bărbăşescu Vilmoş Gheorghe | 4 | 2:25:39.8 |
| 8 |  United StatesRalph Wakley Edward Williams Bill Spencer John Ehrensbeck | 8 | 2:28:35.5 |
| 9 | West Germany Herbert Hindelang Theo Merkel Xaver Kraus Gerhard Gehring | 6 | 2:29:56.6 |
| 10 |  FranceDaniel Claudon Serge Legrand Aimé Gruet-Masson Jean-Claude Viry | 10 | 2:31:12.9 |
| 11 |  AustriaPaul Ernst Adolf Scherwitzl Horst Schneider Franz Vetter | 10 | 2:33:47.1 |
| 12 |  Great Britain<smallMarcus Halliday Alan Notley Peter Tancock Frederick Andrew | 9 | 2:34:40.9 |
| 13 |  JapanIsao Ono Miki Shibuya Shozo Okuyama Hajime Yoshimura | 9 | 2:35:21.0 |
| - |  CanadaGeorge Ede Knowles McGill George Rattai Esko Karu | DNF | - |
References
- 1 2 "Rapport Officiel Xes Jeux Olympiques D'Hiver 1968 Grenoble" (PDF). Comité d'organisation des Xemes jeux olympiques d'hiver. LA84 Foundation. 1968. Retrieved September 20, 2013.