France was in trouble straight away. On the opening leg, Fabien Claude struggled on the standing stage and dropped to 13th, 50 seconds behind Martin Uldal. The Norwegian created a small gap and handed over with a 15-second advantage over Finland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Ukraine. Italy had a complete disaster: Patrick Braunhofer lost a full minute on the final lap.
But everything changed quickly on the very next shooting. Emilien Jacquelin blasted his lap, shot clean, and suddenly France were just seven seconds behind the leading group. One more acceleration and France were in front. Jacquelin then decided to make a statement, pulling away from Nelin, Seppala, Burkhalter and Zobel — by the entrance to the range he had 17 seconds on that group.
At the same time, Johan Botn — who took over from Uldal — barely survived the prone stage, using all his spare rounds. Early on the lap he was already 25 seconds behind.
On the standing stage, Jacquelin used one spare round but shot quickly and kept the lead. Jesper Nelin went perfect and trailed by nine seconds. Seppala was ten seconds back, Burkhalter 17, while Zobel, after a very messy series, was already 28 seconds down. Botn responded in style, shot clean, and went after the Frenchman 20 seconds behind.
Then came the moment everyone had been waiting for: Jacquelin began to crack. The Swede and the Finn easily took ten seconds out of him, but the Frenchman managed to hang on.
Now the heavy hitters were in: Quentin Fillon Maillet for France, Klemettinen for Finland, Laegreid for the chasing Norwegians, and Sweden sent in their big gun — Ponsiluoma. Germany and Switzerland were 33 seconds down halfway through the race.
At the prone stage, the Frenchman built a small gap, while Laegreid moved up into second.
But after the standing stage, the famous trio was back together again: France, Norway and Sweden. Germany continued to suffer badly on the standing shooting, and Navrat was no exception — he needed three spare rounds again. Finland stayed with the group at first, but then took two penalty loops on the standing stage and dropped to two minutes behind.
At the final exchange, the leading trio arrived together. Germany were already 50 seconds back, Slovenia held fifth at 1:16, and Ukraine sat sixth almost two minutes behind.
On the anchor leg at the prone stage, Eric Perrot shot clean. Christiansen needed one spare round, Samuelsson two — and France led by 10 seconds over Norway and 20 over Sweden. Philipp Horn, behind that trio, cut ten seconds off the gap, but it cost him at the range: three spare rounds, and Germany’s medal hopes were gone. Perhaps he pushed too hard on the opening lap, because Samuelsson looked very flat afterwards.
At the final standing stage, Perrot shot quickly despite two spare rounds. Still, Vetle Christiansen’s clean shoot reduced the gap to eight seconds. Samuelsson shot clean as well, but was already 27 seconds behind — a solid third place and bronze.
The fight for gold was not over. Christiansen launched the chase, even cutting the gap at first, but then the distance began to grow again and the Norwegian had to settle for silver.
France are the Olympic champions in the men’s relay.
| Click on the flag to select team | Shooting | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
France | 1+9 | 1:19:55.2 |
 |
Fabien Claude | 0+1 1+3 | ||
|
Emilien Jacquelin | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Quentin Fillon Maillet | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Eric Perrot | 0+0 0+2 | ||
| 2 |  |
Norway | 0+6 | +9.8 |
|
Martin Uldal | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Johan-Olav Botn | 0+3 0+0 | ||
|
Holm Laegreid Sturla | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Sjastad Christiansen Vetle | 0+1 0+0 | ||
| 3 |  |
Sweden | 0+6 | +57.5 |
|
Victor Brandt | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Jesper Nelin | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Martin Ponsiluoma | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Sebastian Samuelsson | 0+2 0+0 | ||
| 4 |  |
Germany | 0+12 | +1:48.3 |
|
Justus Strelow | 0+0 0+2 | ||
|
David Zobel | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Philipp Nawrath | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Philipp Horn | 0+3 0+0 | ||
| 5 |  |
USA | 0+8 | +2:27.4 |
|
Sean Doherty | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Maxime Germain | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Paul Schommer | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Campbell Wright | 0+3 0+0 | ||
| 6 |  |
Republic Czech | 0+10 | +2:31.3 |
|
Tomas Mikyska | 0+0 0+2 | ||
|
Vitezslav Hornig | 0+0 0+2 | ||
|
Petr Hak | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Michal Krcmar | 0+0 0+2 | ||
| 7 |  |
Finland | 2+10 | +2:34.1 |
|
Olli Hiidensalo | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Tero Seppala | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Jimi Klemettinen | 0+2 2+3 | ||
|
Otto Invenius | 0+1 0+2 | ||
| 8 |  |
Switzerland | 2+12 | +2:41.4 |
|
Sebastian Stalder | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Joscha Burkhalter | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Jeremy Finello | 0+2 2+3 | ||
|
Niklas Hartweg | 0+2 0+2 | ||
| 9 |  |
Slovenia | 1+11 | +2:57.8 |
|
Miha Dovzan | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Jakov Fak | 0+0 0+3 | ||
|
Anton Vidmar | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Lovro Planko | 0+2 1+3 | ||
| 10 |  |
Austria | 0+7 | +3:03.3 |
|
Dominic Unterweger | 0+1 0+2 | ||
|
Simon Eder | 0+0 0+2 | ||
|
Fabian Muellauer | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Patrick Jakob | 0+0 0+1 | ||
| 11 |  |
Poland | 0+10 | +3:37.3 |
|
Konrad Badacz | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Grzegorz Galica | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Jan Gunka | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Marcin Zawol | 0+3 0+1 | ||
| 12 |  |
Bulgaria | 0+10 | +3:47.3 |
|
Blagoy Todev | 0+2 0+2 | ||
|
Vladimir Iliev | 0+2 0+3 | ||
|
Konstantin Vasilev | 0+0 0+0 | ||
|
Anton Sinapov | 0+0 0+1 | ||
| 13 |  |
Estonia | 0+6 | +3:53.6 |
|
Rene Zahkna | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Kristo Siimer | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Mark-markos Kehva | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Jakob Kulbin | 0+1 0+1 | ||
| 14 |  |
Italy | 0+9 | +4:28.5 |
|
Patrick Braunhofer | 0+1 0+1 | ||
|
Lukas Hofer | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Nicola Romanin | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Tommaso Giacomel | 0+1 0+3 | ||
| 15 |  |
Lithuania | 0+9 | +4:45.1 |
|
Vytautas Strolia | 0+3 0+0 | ||
|
Karol Dombrovskij | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Nikita Cigak | 0+3 0+0 | ||
|
Maksim Fomin | 0+0 0+2 | ||
| 16 |  |
Ukraine | 2+12 | +5:12.2 |
|
Dmytro Pidruchnuy | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Bogdan Borkovski | 0+3 0+0 | ||
|
Vitalii Mandzyn | 0+0 0+1 | ||
|
Taras Lesyuk | 0+2 2+3 | ||
| 17 |  |
Canada | 3+13 | +6:31.7 |
|
Runnalls Adam | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Logan Pletz | 0+2 0+0 | ||
|
Jasper Fleming | 1+3 1+3 | ||
|
Zachary Connelly | 0+0 1+3 | ||
| 18 |  |
Latvia | 5+13 | +6:43.9 |
|
Andrejs Rastorgujevs | 0+2 0+2 | ||
|
Renars Birkentals | 0+1 0+0 | ||
|
Rihards Lozbers | 0+1 3+3 | ||
|
Edgars Mise | 0+1 2+3 | ||
| 19 |  |
Belgium | 0+18 | +7:00.6 |
|
Thierry Langer | 0+3 0+1 | ||
|
Florent Claude | 0+2 0+2 | ||
|
Sam Parmentier | 0+3 0+3 | ||
|
Marek Mackels | 0+3 0+1 | ||
| 20 |  |
Romania | 0+9 | |
|
Dmitrii Shamaev | 0+0 0+2 | ||
|
George Buta | 0+1 0+3 | ||
|
Coltea | 0+2 0+1 | ||
|
Antonio Flore Raul |
