An extremely tight race with a spectacular finale on the final lap. A powerful late surge from Maren Kirkeeide sealed the win, while France were left deeply disappointed.
On the opening leg, Lou Jeanmonnot immediately tried to break away from the chasing pack. Already on the second lap, she had built a solid nine-second gap, shot cleanly on the standing stage, and it looked as though France were about to extend their advantage even further. But that was not to be. Italy’s Auchentaller clawed back 13 seconds on the lap, Gandler seven, and Kuehlm five, leaving that trio just six seconds down at the first exchange.
France failed to make the break, and the second leg saw a very tight group featuring France, Austria, Germany, Italy, Estonia, Czechia, Sweden and Norway moving together for most of the leg. After the standing shooting, the group began to fragment slightly: Michelon and Arnekleiv shot poorly and dropped back, while Hauser slipped out of the lead group after a small fall.
Wierer, Gestblom, Tannheimer and Charvatova handed over in front, but Arnekleiv, Ermits and Hauser were only seven seconds behind. The French skier Michelon trailed by 16 seconds, and Baserga by 24, while the rest of the teams were already more than a minute back.
The leaders then chose not to force the pace, and by the prone shooting all of the top eight arrived together. Even Justine Braisaz had clawed back 15 seconds to rejoin the group.
After the prone stage, the pack split slightly: Braisaz, Vobornikova and Oeberg led, with the others seven to eight seconds behind. On the standing shooting, many ran into trouble. Braisaz and Hettich-Walz needed all eight rounds, Oeberg and Knotten struggled on the range, but one athlete took full advantage of the chaos — Tereza Vobornikova.
The Czech skier left the range with a 16-second advantage over Knotten and 28 seconds over Hettich-Walz, who closed out the virtual contenders’ group. However, Vobornikova skis far better on the range than on the track. With 600 meters to go, she was caught and passed by Elvira Oeberg and Michela Carrara. Knotten and Braisaz finished eight seconds back, Tannheimer 13 seconds down, and the Austrian athlete 17 seconds behind, completing the top seven and the group of medal contenders. All other teams were already more than a minute adrift.
The final leg featured a star-studded lineup: Lisa Vittozzi, Julia Simon, Hanna Oeberg, Maren Kirkeeide and Franziska Preuss. On paper, only Anna Juppe and Tereza Vinklárková seemed to have limited chances.
At the prone shooting, Vittozzi and Simon both went five out of five and emerged as the leaders. The others struggled: Preuss was 11 seconds back, Kirkeeide and Vinklárková 15, and Oeberg 20 seconds down. Yet all four managed to close the gap dramatically on the track, reducing the deficit to just four seconds.
Six athletes still in contention heading into the final shooting — when was the last time that happened?
The Italian and the Frenchwoman once again cleared all five targets without issue. The Swede and the Norwegian needed one spare round each and left the range 11 to 13 seconds behind the leading duo. Vinklárková dropped out of contention, while Preuss was sent onto the penalty loop.
Vittozzi immediately tried to break away from Simon — and with good reason. Oeberg and Arnekleiv unleashed a fierce pace, caught Simon after just 800 meters, and began closing dangerously on the Italian. Oeberg ran out of steam, but Kirkeeide produced a devastating acceleration on the final climb, instantly clawing back seven seconds. By the finishing straight, she was right on Vittozzi’s skis — then squeezed into the Italian’s finishing corridor to make absolutely sure.
A risky and wild move, but victory belonged to Norway.
The favourites were left empty-handed: France finished outside the top three.
| Name | № | Shooting | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
Norway | 3 | 0+9 | 1:07:06.2 |
 |
Marthe Krakstad Johansen | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Juni Arnekleiv | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Karoline Offigstad Knotten | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Maren Kirkeeide | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 2 |  |
Italy | 6 | 0+4 | 1:07:07.1 |
|
Hannah Auchentaller | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Dorothea Wierer | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Michela Carrara | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Lisa Vittozzi | 0+0 0+0 | |||
| 3 |  |
Sweden | 2 | 0+7 | 1:07:09.2 |
|
Johanna Skottheim | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
(persson) Linn Gestblom | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Elvira Karin Oeberg | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Hanna Oeberg | 0+2 0+1 | |||
| 4 |  |
France | 1 | 0+6 | 1:07:16.7 |
|
Lou Jeanmonnot | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Oceane Michelon | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Justine Braisaz-bouchet | 0+0 0+3 | |||
|
Julia Simon | 0+0 0+0 | |||
| 5 |  |
Czech Republic | 7 | 0+3 | 1:07:59.0 |
|
Jessica Jislova | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Lucie Charvatova | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Tereza Vobornikova | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Tereza Vinklarkova | 0+1 0+2 | |||
| 6 |  |
Germany | 4 | 1+8 | 1:08:08.0 |
|
Vanessa Voigt | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Julia Tannheimer | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Janina Hettich-walz | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Franziska Preuss | 0+0 1+3 | |||
| 7 |  |
Austria | 8 | 0+4 | 1:08:34.9 |
|
Anna Gandler | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Lisa Theresa Hauser | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Anna Andexer | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Anna Juppe | 0+2 0+1 | |||
| 8 |  |
Finland | 5 | 0+7 | 1:08:41.2 |
|
Inka Haemaelaeinen | 0+3 0+0 | |||
|
Sonja Leinamo | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Venla Lehtonen | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Suvi Minkkinen | 0+0 0+1 | |||
| 9 |  |
Switzerland | 10 | 0+4 | 1:08:53.7 |
|
Lea Meier | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Amy Baserga | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Aita Gasparin | 0+0 0+3 | |||
|
Gross Lena Haecki | 0+0 0+0 | |||
| 10 |  |
Slovakia | 9 | 0+9 | 1:09:06.8 |
|
Zuzana Remenova | 0+3 0+1 | |||
|
Anastasia Kuzmina | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Maria Remenova | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Fialkova Paulina Batovska | 0+1 0+1 | |||
| 11 |  |
USA | 11 | 0+8 | 1:10:02.6 |
|
Deedra Irwin | 0+2 0+1 | |||
|
Joanne Reid | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Lucinda Anderson | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Margaret Freed | 0+1 0+2 | |||
| 12 |  |
Poland | 12 | 2+6 | 1:10:55.3 |
|
Monika Hojnisz-starega | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Kamila Zuk | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Natalia Sidorowicz | 0+0 0+2 | |||
|
Joanna Jakiela | 0+0 2+3 | |||
| 13 |  |
Canada | 18 | 0+8 | 1:10:57.2 |
|
Shilo Rousseau | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Pascale Paradis | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Benita Peiffer | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Nadia Moser | 0+1 0+2 | |||
| 14 |  |
Ukraine | 15 | 0+7 | 1:10:57.7 |
|
Kristina Dmytrenko | 0+2 0+0 | |||
|
Daryna Chalyk | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Valeriya Dmytrenko | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Olena Horodna | 0+1 0+0 | |||
| 15 |  |
Estonia | 17 | 0+5 | 1:11:58.9 |
|
Susan Kuelm | 0+0 0+0 | |||
|
Regina Ermits | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Johanna Taliharm | 0+0 0+1 | |||
|
Emma Roberta Rajando | 0+0 0+3 | |||
| 16 |  |
Bulgaria | 14 | 0+8 | 1:12:34.8 |
|
Valentina Dimitrova | 0+1 0+0 | |||
|
Milena Todorova | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Maria Zdravkova | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Lora Hristova | 0+1 0+0 | |||
| 17 |  |
Slovenia | 13 | 3+12 | 1:12:37.9 |
|
Lena Repinc | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Anamarija Lampic | 0+0 3+3 | |||
|
Polona Klemencic | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Ziva Klemencic | 0+0 0+2 | |||
| 18 |  |
Kazakstan | 19 | 0+9 | Lapped |
|
Milana Geneva | 0+2 0+2 | |||
|
Darya Klimina-usanova | 0+1 0+2 | |||
|
Polina Yegorova | 0+1 0+1 | |||
|
Alina Skripkina | ||||
| 19 |  |
Latvia | 16 | 2+13 | Lapped |
|
Sanita Bulina | 1+3 0+1 | |||
|
Baiba Bendika | 0+2 1+3 | |||
|
Annija Keita Sabule | 0+1 0+3 | |||
|
Sandra Bulina |
