Martin Ponsiluoma secures Olympic gold for Sweden in pursuit biathlon race

Audio By Carbonatix

ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) — In an upset for the French men's biathlon team, Martin Ponsiluoma of Sweden dominated on the shooting range Sunday to take the gold medal in the 12.5-kilometer pursuit biathlon race at the Milan Cortina Winter Games, while Norwegian biathlete Sturla Holm Laegreid won silver — six days after making an unexpected personal confession during a post-race interview.

Emilien Jacquelin of France led the field coming into the last shooting stage, after cleaning his targets using his characteristic but risky rapid fire technique. But the speed got the best of him and he missed two, allowing Ponsiluoma, who hit all his targets, to exit the range first. Laegreid also cleared his targets and left the range in second place, leaving Jacquelin with bronze.

Ponsiluoma, winning the first medal in biathlon for Sweden in these Winter Games, crossed the finish line with a time of 31 minutes and 11.9 seconds. Laegreid was 20.6 seconds behind him while Jacquelin was 29.7 seconds back.

The Swede said he feared getting caught on the last lap.

“I was really afraid of the chasers," he said. “I was nervous, but I felt (safe) on the last part of the loop, so I just tried to enjoy it. Doing this at the Olympics is really big. I’m super proud of the race today. I did everything I wanted: I was skiing really fast, shooting fast, the focusing was amazing. So, it was my day today.“

Laegreid said he took the race one step at a time.

“Ski one meter at a time. Shoot one shot at a time. Do my best with what I can right now and, in the end, we can count the results," he said.

At the post-race press conference, Laegreid applauded Jacquelin's aggressive tactics and the two men addressed comments both have made in the media this week.

Laegreid drew national attention on Tuesday after the men’s individual race when during an tearful interview with Norwegian television, he revealed on camera that he had been unfaithful “to the love of my life” in an apparent attempt to win her back. He released a statement the following day, saying he regretted sharing his personal story, which detracted from teammate Johan-Olav Botn 's gold medal.

After Friday's sprint race when Laegreid finished third and Jacquelin fourth, the Frenchman joked to VG Sport that he “was beaten by an unfaithful guy,” and vowed to strike back during the pursuit race.

When asked about it on Sunday, Jacquelin said he says what he thinks, but that may not always be wise.

He said after he saw Laegreid's interview, he felt sad for him “because honesty sometimes is not the best thing in our society. Sometimes we should say nothing. In a way you can think what you want. Is it good or not. It’s on your mind what you think. But having honesty and say what you say, what I say after the sprint, it’s part of a duel."

He said they have since discussed it and “everything is fine.”

Laegreid said he took Jacquelin's comment “with a sense of humor.”

“Of course we talked about it later when I met him at the hotel and there was no hard feelings but even though we had squared up I think he used it a bit for energy today,” Laegreid said. "For him to be in the mode he was today, if this was what he needed and then attacking like he doing it is for me really impressive.

"And I told him after the race, the way he attacked today, the way he was giving a show was really honorable to watch."

Olympic biathlon pursuit champion Quentin Fillon Maillet, having won the sprint race days before, started off 14 seconds ahead of the field, but missed three shots during his two prone shooting stages, dropping him down to eighth place. He finished seventh, 1:13.5 behind the Swede.

The pursuit biathlon start list is based on how the racers finished in the previous sprint race, with the sprint winner going off first, and all others starting in the seconds-back order based on their sprint finish. Biathletes must ski a 150-meter penalty lap for each missed target.

___

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics