At the first shooting, Emilien Jacquelin was the fastest on the range and left as the leader with a five-second advantage. And once he was in front, the Frenchman stepped on the gas again, accelerating so strongly that he gained 20 seconds on his closest rivals. Laegreid, Christiansen, Dale and Giacomel were all trailing, followed by a ten-second gap to the rest of the field.
At the second shooting, Jacquelin missed, while the chasing quartet all hit five out of five, allowing Jacquelin to rejoin them. But the group soon became four again. Tommaso Giacomel completely cracked, losing 30 seconds in just one kilometer. Coaches urged him to stop immediately. The Italian continued for another 500 meters before retiring from the race.
By that point, Samuelsson had already missed twice, Botn three times, and both were one minute behind the leaders. Ponsiluoma had dropped to last place.
The third shooting came under a strong gust of wind. Only Johannes Dale and Philipp Horn, who had been 12 seconds back, managed to hit five out of five. Laegreid limited the damage to one miss — a solid outcome considering that Fillon Maillet and Christiansen each went to two penalty loops, while Jacquelin took four.
Amid this chaos, Michal Krcmar moved up to fourth place, while Mandzyn in eighth was already one minute behind the leader.
Dale now sensed open space ahead and began to extend his advantage, leading by 25 seconds over Laegreid and Horn before the final shooting.
But the gap no longer mattered — Dale delivered a flawless final shoot and headed onto the last lap with a 20-second lead over Laegreid, who also shot clean.
Horn and Fillon Maillet had to ski penalty loops. None of the other athletes could capitalize, leaving only the battle between the Frenchman and the German as the final-lap intrigue. Quentin trailed by six seconds but caught Philipp with two kilometers to go. And from there, it was almost predictable — few would have bet on the German in that duel. The Frenchman had been stronger throughout the Games and handled Horn without major trouble.
Johannes Dale finally claims Olympic gold at these Games, throwing his poles triumphantly at the finish line.
For Sturla Laegreid, this marks his fifth medal of the Olympics — but all of them silver or bronze.
| Click on the flag to select team | Shooting | - | Time | ||
| 1 |  |
Johannes Dale-skjevdal | 0+0+0+0 | 0 | 39:17.1 |
| 2 | |
Holm Laegreid Sturla | 0+0+1+0 | 1 | +10.5 |
| 3 |  |
Quentin Fillon Maillet | 1+0+2+1 | 4 | +25.6 |
| 4 |  |
Philipp Horn | 0+0+0+1 | 1 | +35.5 |
| 5 | |
Sjastad Christiansen Vetle | 0+0+2+1 | 3 | +1:48.1 |
| 6 |  |
Michal Krcmar | 0+0+1+4 | 5 | +2:03.6 |
| 7 | |
Philipp Nawrath | 0+1+1+3 | 5 | +2:05.3 |
| 8 | |
Johan-Olav Botn | 1+2+0+2 | 5 | +2:07.4 |
| 9 |  |
Otto Invenius | 0+0+3+2 | 5 | +2:24.7 |
| 10 |  |
Vitalii Mandzyn | 0+0+2+3 | 5 | +2:30.7 |
| 11 |  |
Joscha Burkhalter | 1+0+1+0 | 2 | +2:32.0 |
| 12 | |
Emilien Jacquelin | 0+1+4+1 | 6 | +2:39.6 |
| 13 | |
Sebastian Stalder | 0+0+1+0 | 1 | +2:49.9 |
| 14 | |
Olli Hiidensalo | 0+1+2+1 | 4 | +2:51.9 |
| 15 | |
Tuomas Harjula | 0+0+2+1 | 3 | +2:58.9 |
| 16 |  |
Jakov Fak | 0+0+1+0 | 1 | +3:06.1 |
| 17 | |
Dmytro Pidruchnuy | 2+0+2+1 | 5 | +3:14.6 |
| 18 |  |
Sebastian Samuelsson | 0+2+1+1 | 4 | +3:35.0 |
| 19 | |
Vitezslav Hornig | 2+0+1+2 | 5 | +3:38.9 |
| 20 | |
Eric Perrot | 1+2+3+1 | 7 | +3:44.4 |
| 21 | |
Martin Ponsiluoma | 2+3+1+1 | 7 | +3:46.7 |
| 22 | |
Tero Seppala | 0+3+2+2 | 7 | +3:53.0 |
| 23 | |
David Zobel | 0+2+4+1 | 7 | +4:32.4 |
| 24 | |
Niklas Hartweg | 1+1+3+1 | 6 | +4:50.4 |
| 25 |  |
Lukas Hofer | 1+1+4+2 | 8 | +4:52.4 |
| 26 | |
Jesper Nelin | 0+1+3+3 | 7 | +5:00.2 |
| 27 | |
Fabien Claude | 3+1+4+1 | 9 | +5:56.6 |
| 28 | |
Nicola Romanin | 2+2+2+2 | 8 | +5:56.9 |
| 29 |  |
Campbell Wright | 0+1+5+1 | 7 | +5:56.9 |
|
Tommaso Giacomel | 0+0 | 0 |
