Biathlon at the 2014 Winter Olympics – Women's relay explained

Event:	Women's relay
Games:	2014 Winter
Venue:	Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex
Date:	21 February
Competitors:	68
Nations:	17
Win Value:	1:10:02.5
Gold:	Vita Semerenko Juliya Dzhyma Valentyna Semerenko Olena Pidhrushna
Goldnoc:	UKR
Silver:	Fanny Welle-Strand Horn Tiril Eckhoff Ann Kristin Aafeldt Flatland Tora Berger
Silvernoc:	NOR
Bronze:	Eva Puskarčíková Gabriela Soukalová Jitka Landová Veronika Vítková
Bronzenoc:	CZE
Prev:	2010
Next:	2018

The Women's 4 x 6 kilometre relay biathlon competition of the Sochi 2014 Olympics was held at Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex on 21 February 2014.^[1]

Summary

Ukraine won their first ever gold Olympic medal in biathlon (and the second gold winter Olympic medal, the first one since 1994 (won by Oksana Baiul),^[2] ^[3] ahead of Russia, the defending champion, and Norway. It also became the fourth nation — after France, Russia, and Germany — to ever win the Olympic gold medal in women's biathlon relay.

For the first time Germany failed to reach the podium in Olympic women's relay. Franziska Preuß, who was running the first leg, fell and broke a pole. After that, Germany was never in the medal contention.^[4] Marie-Laure Brunet, running the first leg for France, collapsed, so France did not finish.

On 27 November 2017, the IOC disqualified Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova for doping violations and stripped Russia of the silver medal.^[5] Fellow teammate Olga Zaitseva was sanctioned on 1 December 2017.^[6] On 24 September 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport removed the sanctions from biathletes Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova, but upheld them on their teammate Olga Zaitseva.^[7] Medals in this event were redistributed by the IOC on 19 May 2022.^[8] The Czech team was awarded the medals on 4 March 2023 during the Biathlon World Cup in Nové Město na Moravě.^[9]

Results

The race was started at 18:30.^[10]

Rank	Bib	Time	Penalties (P+S)	Deficit
	2	1:10:02.5 16:56.4 17:16.3 17:40.9 18:08.9	0+1 0+4 0+0 0+1 0+0 0+0 0+0 0+3 0+1 0+0	—
	4	1:10:40.1 17:40.5 16:57.9 17:43.6 18:18.1	0+1 0+4 0+1 0+2 0+0 0+1 0+0 0+0 0+0 0+1	+37.6
	10	1:11:25.7 17:54.2 16:30.6 18:42.4 18:18.5	0+7 0+7 0+2 0+2 0+0 0+2 0+3 0+2 0+2 0+1	+1:23.2
	6	1:11:33.4 18:39.0 17:38.3 18:02.1 17:14.0	0+4 1+4 0+2 1+3 0+0 0+1 0+2 0+0 0+0 0+0	+1:30.9
	8	1:11:43.3 16:49.7 18:46.0 18:06.5 18:01.1	1+5 0+4 0+2 0+1 1+3 0+3 0+0 0+0 0+0 0+0	+1:40.8
	14	1:12:14.2 17:02.6 18:08.3 17:55.6 19:07.7	0+7 0+6 0+2 0+1 0+3 0+3 0+0 0+0 0+2 0+2	+2:11.7
	7	1:12:21.5 17:20.7 17:41.7 17:38.1 19:41.0	0+6 2+6 0+2 0+1 0+2 0+2 0+0 0+0 0+2 2+3	+2:19.0
	12	1:12:34.3 17:17.6 17:55.8 17:56.1 19:24.8	0+6 0+3 0+3 0+1 0+0 0+1 0+0 0+1 0+3 0+0	+2:31.8
	11	1:12:34.4 19:39.0 17:06.8 17:21.7 18:26.9	4+5 0+3 4+3 0+1 0+0 0+1 0+2 0+0 0+0 0+1	+2:31.9
10	1	1:13:44.2 19:46.7 17:25.1 17:59.4 18:33.0	0+5 0+1 0+3 0+1 0+1 0+0 0+1 0+0 0+0 0+0	+3:41.7
11	13	1:15:54.7 17:36.6 18:35.5 18:17.4 21:25.2	0+5 0+8 0+0 0+2 0+2 0+2 0+0 0+2 0+3 0+2	+5:52.2
12	17	LAP 17:33.2 18:47.0 19:23.3 LAP	0+6 0+5 0+0 0+1 0+2 0+2 0+1 0+1 0+3 0+1
13	9	LAP 17:51.3 18:57.7 19:48.0 LAP	4+11 1+8 0+2 1+3 1+3 0+2 3+3 0+0 0+3 0+3
14	16	LAP 18:40.2 18:41.1 18:40.0 LAP	0+6 0+5 0+1 0+2 0+2 0+0 0+0 0+1 0+3 0+2
15	15	LAP 18:03.8 19:14.8 19:58.1 LAP	0+5 1+8 0+2 0+1 0+1 0+1 0+2 1+3 0+0 0+3
	5			DNF
DSQ (2)	3	1:10:28.9 16:56.3 17:43.2 17:43.3 18:06.1	0+1 0+3 0+0 0+1 0+1 0+1 0+0 0+0 0+0 0+1	+26.4

Notes and References

Web site: Biathlon Competition Schedule . . 10 January 2014 . 20 March 2014 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140320040557/http://www.sochi2014.com/en/biathlon-schedule-and-results . dead .
Web site: Oksana Baiul . https://web.archive.org/web/20200417085939/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ba/oksana-baiul-1.html . dead . 17 April 2020 . Sports-reference.com . 4 January 2011.
Web site: Minute's silence respected at Ukraine news conference . . 21 February 2014.
News: Ukraine wins women's biathlon relay for first gold medal at Sochi Olympics . Willemsen . Eric . 21 February 2014 . Brandon Sun . . 21 February 2014.
Web site: IOC sanctions five Russian athletes and publishes first full decision as part of the Oswald Commission findings. 27 November 2017. International Olympic Committee. 27 November 2017.
Web site: IOC sanctions three Russian athletes as part of Oswald Commission findings. 14 July 2021.
https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Media_Release_5434_5435_5444.pdf Media release
Web site: Events from Sochi 2014 and Tokyo 2020 to have medals and diplomas reallocated . International Olympic Committee . 22 May 2022 . 2 June 2023.
https://twitter.com/tribunaua/status/1632099334060687360 Жіночу збірну Чехії з біатлону нагородили бронзою за естафету… ОІ-2014
Web site: Final Results. 2 June 2023.