Biathlon at the 1988 Winter Olympics – Relay

Men's biathlon relay at the XV Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Canmore Nordic Centre
Dates	February 26
Competitors	64 from 16 nations
Winning time	1:22:30.0
Medalists
01 !  Soviet Union Dmitry Vasilyev Sergei Tchepikov Alexandr Popov Valeriy Medvedtsev 02 !  West Germany Ernst Reiter Stefan Höck Peter Angerer Fritz Fischer 03 !  Italy Werner Kiem Gottlieb Taschler Johann Passler Andreas Zingerle

Biathlon at the 1988 Winter Olympics
Individual		men
Sprint		men
Relay		men

The Men's 4 x 7.5 kilometre biathlon relay competition at the 1988 Winter Olympics 23 February, at Canmore Nordic Centre. Each national team consisted of four members, with each skiing 7.5 kilometres and shooting twice, once prone and once standing.^[1]

At each shooting station, a competitor has eight shots to hit five targets; however, only five bullets are loaded in a magazine at one - if additional shots are required, the spare bullets must be loaded one at a time. If after the eight shots are taken, there are still targets not yet hit, the competitor must ski a 150-metre penalty loop.^[2]

Results

The East German team were defending world champions, and had won at least a silver medal in every major competition of the 80s except for the 1984 Olympic race. In Calgary, they again failed to medal, missing three early shots to fall well behind. With the East Germans in trouble, the Soviets were able to pull away and win by more than a minute. This was the sixth consecutive relay win for the Soviet Union, and with the country dissolving before the 1992 Games, this win ensured that the Soviet Union never lost an Olympic relay. West Germany and Italy, the two teams that claimed bronze medals behind the top two teams at the 1986 and 1987 World Championships, rounded out the medals in Calgary.^[1]

Rank	Team	Penalties	Result
01 !	Soviet Union Dmitry Vasilyev Sergei Tchepikov Alexandr Popov Valeriy Medvedtsev	0 0 0 0 0	1:22:30.0
02 !	West Germany Ernst Reiter Stefan Höck Peter Angerer Fritz Fischer	0 0 0 0 0	1:23:37.4
03 !	Italy Werner Kiem Gottlieb Taschler Johann Passler Andreas Zingerle	0 0 0 0 0	1:23:51.5
4	Austria Anton Lengauer-Stockner Bruno Hofstätter Franz Schuler Alfred Eder	0 0 0 0 0	1:24:17.6
5	East Germany Jürgen Wirth Frank-Peter Roetsch Matthias Jacob André Sehmisch	3 3 0 0 0	1:24:28.4
6	Norway Geir Einang Frode Løberg Gisle Fenne Eirik Kvalfoss	0 0 0 0 0	1:25:57.0
7	Sweden Peter Sjödén Mikael Löfgren Roger Westling Leif Andersson	3 0 0 3 0	1:29:11.9
8	Bulgaria Vasil Bozhilov Vladimir Velichkov Krasimir Videnov Khristo Vodenicharov	7 1 0 4 2	1:29:24.9
9	United States Lyle Nelson Curt Schreiner Darin Binning Josh Thompson	2 1 0 0 1	1:29:33.0
10	France Éric Claudon Jean-Paul Giachino Hervé Flandin Francis Mougel	6 0 4 0 2	1:30:22.8
11	Czechoslovakia Jiří Holubec František Chládek Tomáš Kos Jan Matouš	3 0 3 0 0	1:30:48.8
12	Finland Juha Tella Antero Lähde Arto Jääskeläinen Tapio Piipponen	5 3 2 0 0	1:30:54.4
13	Great Britain Mike Dixon Mark Langin Carl Davies Trevor King	5 0 0 1 5	1:31:44.6
14	Japan Tadashi Nakamura Misao Kodate Akihiro Takizawa Koichi Sato	6 3 1 2 0	1:32:52.4
15	Canada Charles Plamondon Glenn Rupertus Ken Karpoff Jamie Kallio	4 3 1 0 0	1:33:37.0
16	South Korea Hong Byung-Sik Joo Young-Dai Kim Yong-Woon Shin Young-Sun	7 1 3 2 1	1:51:42.7

References

• Sports-Reference.com - 1988 Olympics Men's 4 x 7.5 km Relay
• IBU Biathlon Datacenter - 1988 Olympics Relay