Biathlon Canada’s Emma Lunder finishing 21st for her career-best IBU World Cup result on Thursday at the women’s 15 k individual (her first time racing that distance) in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)
IBU World Cup (Antholz, Italy): Women’s 15 k individual
In her first-ever 15-kilometer individual race, Canada’s 25-year-old Emma Lunder captured a career-best 21st at Thursday’s International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup in Antholz, Italy.
The last time Lunder scored World Cup points was at her very first IBU World Cup in 2014 in Pokljuka, Slovenia. There, she placed 30th in the sprint and went on to finish 41st in the pursuit, which stood as her best World Cup finishes — until Thursday.
In the women’s 15 k individual, a four-stage race that penalizes one minute for every missed shot, Lunder was one of the best shooters out there, shooting 19-for-20, missing one shot on her second prone stage (0+0+1+0). Out of 99 competitors, Lunder was one of four who missed just one. No one cleaned all four stages.
Lunder started last in bib 99 and ended up 21st at the finish, 3:29.7 minutes behind winner Laura Dahlmeier of Germany, who won in 44:48.7 with two one-minute penalties (1+1+0+0).
Dahlmeier started 15th and battled windy conditions for the victory, with a time that was 3.8 seconds faster than France’s eventual runner-up Anais Chevalier, who started 32nd and missed one (0+1+0+0). Italy’s Alexia Runggaldier notched her first World Cup podium in third (+46.0) after starting 59th and missing just one target as well (0+1+0+0).
“I was extremely happy with my shooting performance and hitting 19/20 targets on a tough day!” Lunder wrote in an email. “I think I had fairly consistent wind for both prone and standing, and was happy not to have any big gusts blowing me around!
“… To be just out of top-20 today feels pretty amazing,” she continued. “Today was a huge day for me on the range, and I think there’s still work to be done on the skiing side of things, but I know I’m headed in the right direction.”
Also for Biathlon Canada, Megan Tandy tallied a season-best individual result of 33rd (+5:02) despite four penalties, including two on her last standing stage (1+1+0+2), and Julia Ransom placed 55th (+6:28.2) with four penalties (0+3+0+1). Rosanna Crawford did not race.
Clare Egan was the top American in 59th (+6:58.6) with six penalties (1+4+0+1) that added six minutes to her time, and US Biathlon teammate Joanne Reid was right behind in 60th (+7:05.2) with six misses as well (2+2+1+1). Susan Dunklee in bib 46 started at the tail end of the group that appeared to face the windiest conditions, and finished 71st (+7:58.0) with eight penalties (0+4+2+2). Maddie Phaneuf finished 81st (+9:18.9) for the U.S, with seven penalties (3+1+1+2).
The men’s 20 k individual starts Friday at 8:15 Eastern time. Watch it live on Eurovisionsports.tv.
Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to 11th in Thursday’s 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Leading up to Thursday’s 15-kilometer individual race, the first day of the IBU World Cup at Holmenkollen in Oslo, Norway, Susan Dunklee had been feeling tired and Megan Heinicke was still sick. Not ideal, but they had to roll with it.
Dunklee, of US Biathlon, formulated a plan to start conservatively and speed up if she felt she was up to it. Heinicke, of Biathlon Canada, assumed after 10 days of dealing with a cough that refused to let up, she probably wasn’t going to feel great. She missed last weekend’s entire World Cup in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, because of it.
Yet the two toed the start line, and Dunklee went out seventh behind top competitors like World Cup leader Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland in bib 2 and Germany’s Franziska Hildebrand in bib 5.
After one so-called conservative lap, which ended up being the 15th-fastest first lap overall, Dunklee had already put herself in a strong position with a clean first prone. She missed one on the next standing to fall back a few places, but hit every target on her second prone to put herself back in the running for a top performance.
One final miss on her second standing gave Dunklee another minute penalty, and she finished third, 4:07.1 behind Mäkäräinen in first and 23.2 seconds behind Hildebrand, who was in second at the time.
“My shooting today felt very deliberate rather than the ideal automatic, but I focused on the basics — a relaxed stable position and trigger squeeze,” Dunklee explained in an email. “I knew I was having a great race going into the last stage and it was disappointing to miss that first shot.”
Like most of the 86 women that finished the race, she had some tricky conditions to deal with, with some fog during zero as well as during the race, although it was “never enough to totally obscure the targets,” Dunklee wrote. “Snow conditions were firm for the earliest starters but quickly deteriorated into deep corn. The fog created flat light conditions making it difficult at times to see the tracks or the berms in the downhill corners.”
She made a point to push over the “monster climbs,” saving just enough before the crest of each so she could go hard up and over.
“I knew I was having a great race going into the last stage and it was disappointing to miss that first shot,” she wrote. “At that point I told myself that my real test today was whether or not I could regain the right focus for those final four shots, and I did. I feel really good about that.”
At the end of the day, Mäkäräinen — an early leader who cleaned every stage and posted the fastest course times on each lap to keep everyone else more than a minute behind — won in 43:54.8 and Dunklee ended up 11th. The fourth-fastest skier on her last lap, the American clocked the seventh-fastest course time overall.
Canada’s Megan Heinicke (l) leads Marine Bolliet of France in the women’s 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Heinicke cleaned to place 12th, one of four top-15’s this season. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)
About 20 minutes after Dunklee started, Heinicke set out in bib 49, skiing middle-of-the-pack course times but cleaning each passing round to pick off the places.
“I had some clear ski technique goals to help myself stay focused on course no matter what … and I wanted to be confident in the range,” Heinicke explained in an email. “I have been shooting well recently, and with no wind, there was no need for me to shoot ‘extra carefully’ or slowly so I just wanted to relax and do my thing on the range without any special changes in approach because the the individual format.”
She ended up knocking down all 20 targets in the four-stage race, the longest women’s format on the circuit.
“I was pretty relaxed mentally until the last bout,” Heinicke reflected. “For the last standing, there was definitely that little dialogue going on my head with part of me thinking all those pre-mature happy thoughts about the possibility of hitting 20 and the other part of me just focusing on my job and each target. … I’m glad the ‘focused’ part of my brain kept the upper hand!”
Once she realized she cleaned the last stage, another thought popped into her head: “ ‘Oh jeez…I actually hit 20?!?!…again!’ ” she wrote. “But that changed pretty quickly into thoughts about skiing hard for the last loop.”
With a sense of where she stood from the Canadian staff out on course, she finished 11th initially and was bumped to 12th by Germany’s Laura Dahlmeier, who started 60th and placed fourth with clean shooting.
Two-tenths of a second back from Dunklee in 11th, Heinicke tied her personal-best 15 k result in 12th (after placing 12th in the 15 k in Östersund, Sweden, earlier this season), which was also her second-best World Cup result (she was 11th in last month’s sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany).
“Another top 15 finish is awesome and given that my health is still far from 100% I can’t complain,” she wrote. “At the same time it is a bit frustrating, this was one of my slowest skiing performance this season (although our skis were excellent) and I am confident that on an average, healthy day I would have posted my first top 10 finish with 20 hits today.”
Overall, her course time ranked 50th, while her shooting and range times were 16th- and 17th-fastest.
Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland celebrates her 14th IBU World Cup win in the women’s 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)
Six of the top seven women shot 20-for-20, including Mäkäräinen, followed by the Czech Republic’s Veronika Vitkova in third (+1:20.9), Dahlmeier in fourth (+2:28.2), Poland’s Monika Hojnisz in fifth (+2:51.5), and Ukraine’s Juliya Dzhyma and Iryna Varvynets in sixth and seventh, respectively.
Mäkäräinen couldn’t remember the last time she cleaned a four-stage race. According to RealBiathlon, she’s done it four times in her career and never before in a 15 k.
“I think it was in the 2011 World Championships, but the big thing is that it was in a 15 k,” she told the IBU. “I woke up this morning and felt confident, but I was a bit worried about the fog when I came to the first prone. I was wondering if I could see the targets … In prone I had to be very careful, to take every shot carefully and not miss.”
Darya Domracheva of Belarus broke the trend in second with one penalty on her first prone, which set her 40 places back. The 30th starter, she went on to clean every round thereafter and skied the second-fastest lap times after Mäkäräinen to work her way back to second, 1:18.3 back.
Darya Domracheva of Belarus racing though the fog to second despite one penalty in the women’s 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup in Olso, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)
“The tracks were very deep and it was very hard; you had to find a part that was just a little harder but as the race went on, those spots became less and less,” Domracheva told the IBU.
“Nineteen-of-20 is not bad. Kaisa was really strong on the shooting range and the tracks and I think the result might have been the same even if I hit that one target.”
Hildebrand took eighth with two misses, one on each of the first two stages, Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic started ninth and finished ninth with one miss on her third shooting, and France’s Anais Bescond missed one on her last stage to place 10th, 2.5 seconds ahead of Dunklee.
The second Canadian, Rosanna Crawford in bib 14 came out raring to go after crossfiring in the Nove Mesto sprint and pulling out of that race, which made her ineligible for the pursuit last weekend.
“I was looking forward to getting back on the race skis and redeem myself from last week’s disaster,” Crawford wrote in an email. “I love Oslo! So being here definitely put me in a good mood. The tracks were fast and the sun was shining for our two training days.”
She aimed for precision on the range and felt like she accomplished that on her first three bouts with clean first and third stages and one miss on her first standing. In the final standing, she missed two more for a total of three minutes of penalties.
“I’m really disappointed with my last shooting. That was not necessary,” she wrote. “Coming into the last shooting I knew that with a clean shooting a great race was possible. I tried to keep my mind clear and focus on the process, but I think I got a bit ahead of myself. The fog was tricky in standing today. You really had to search out the target. But as the results show a lot of women had a great shooting day today, so no excuse.”
Crawford finished 28th overall, 6:07.2 back from Mäkäräinen.
“I am happy to be in the top 30 pretty consistently this year. But I know what’s possible with 100% shooting,” she added. “Even on an off skiing day if I hit 100% it can be a race I’d be proud of.
“We had an amazing day for all three of us today,” she added, referring to Heinicke and Audrey Vaillancourt, who finished another 30 seconds back in 30th for her career best. “With both Megan and Audrey hitting 20/20 and Audrey getting her first top 30! Today definitely makes up for our lack of nation cup points in Nove Mesto!”
After her perfect-shooting day, Vaillancourt, 23, explained in an email that she focused on hitting each shot individually.
“I think taking the focus away from the total result helped me a lot,” she wrote.
Before the race, she felt calm and ready, and best of all, she liked the course, which featured “hard climbs, fun downhills, rolly sections.” With good shooting, she hoped for a top 40.
“I was really trying to be in the moment during today’s race so I basically took it one hill, one lap, one shooting bout at a time,” Vaillancourt wrote. “This helped me not to get overwhelmed and made me feel confident about the last shooting. It was just one of those days when it feels really easy on the range.”
She added that she was “relieved to finally have really good race. It feels great to see that I, too, can be up there on a good day,” she wrote.
Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 33rd in the IBU World Cup 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)
Hannah Dreissigacker placed 33rd for the U.S., 21.4 seconds after Vaillancourt, with clean shooting in every round except her second — where she missed three.
“On the whole, I’m happy with my race and placing,” Dreissigacker wrote. “In biathlon you can always play the game of ‘where would I be if I’d hit one more shot…two more…etc’, and that is especially true of individuals.”
With three misses in her first standing, she explained it was hard not to think about what might have happened if she shot better on that stage as well.
“But in the end, I’m happy with shooting 85% and I’m glad to have come back and shot two clean stages after that bad one,” she wrote. “I definitely went a bit harder on the lap before the first standing stage, trying to catch a ride with a faster skier. I don’t regret it — that’s how you learn and get better! But I also have to learn from the bad shooting stage.”
The third of four American women in Thursday’s race, Annelies Cook placed 55th (+8:18.2) with three penalties (1+0+2+1). Clare Egan was 82nd (+12:29.0) with six misses (1+1+1+3).
Check back for the men’s 20 k report, featuring Canada’s Nathan Smith in 12th and American Leif Nordgren in 20th.
Dasha Domracheva racing to her second gold of these Olympics in Friday’s 15 k individual start. She became the first Belarusian athlete to do so at the same Winter Games, winning by more than a minute and 15 seconds in Sochi, Russia.
FasterSkier’s coverage is made possible through the generous support of Rudy Project.
SOCHI, Russia — Dasha Domracheva had an inkling things were going according to plan as she rounded the biathlon loop at the Laura Olympic Center five times on Friday night.
For starters, the Belarusian gold medalist from Tuesday’s pursuit had opened with flawless shooting in prone, taking the lead over the 12 women who started ahead of her in the biathlon 15-kilometer individual start.
Three others challenged her through the first stage — Finland’s Kaisa Makarainen, Gabriela Soukalova of the Czech Republic, and Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina — with clean shooting and fast skiing. Three kilometers later, Domracheva suffered a one-minute penalty in the first standing, but it wasn’t a big deal; even with the added time she was still within 11.8 seconds of the lead.
Dasha Domracheva of Belarus in the range. She ended up with a single penalty to win the Olympic 15 k individual on Friday night in Sochi, Russia.
By the third lap, the 27-year-old Domracheva started to turn it on, clocking the fastest ski times from there on out and shooting clean for the remainder of the race. At times she was minutes ahead, and by the finish, she had topped Olga Zaitseva, Russia’s early leader by 3:47.3 minutes in 43:19.6.
Then, she waited, and as competitors like Makarainen completed their races, she gradually realized the second gold was hers. Makarainen was 2:43 behind with three penalties, Soukalova missed one on each standing to finish nearly two minutes back, and Kuzmina had three penalties in the last stage that took her out of contention.
Switzerland’s Selina Gasparin cleaned for the first time in her career, as did Nadezhda Skardino, also from Belarus. Skardino finished second, 1:38.2 behind Domracheva, for the time being. Domracheva waited long enough to watch her come into the final stretch, then grabbed her things and ran inside to get changed.
Selina Gasparin kisses her skis, which helped her to the 10th-best course time of the day and a silver medal.
The 52-degree evening had finished with temperatures around 48 degrees Fahrenheit (the warmest of the 2014 Games yet), and the Olympic champion was getting cold.
“It was amazing because I got information on the track that I’m in the lead and Nadezhda [was] in second,” Domracheva said in a post-race press conference. “I tried to wait for her after the finish line, but I got a little bit frozen at the end of the race.
The two met up in the changing area and press mixed zone after the race. Gasparin’s faster ski time ultimately bumped Skardino to third by 22.7 seconds, and the Swiss skier earned her country’s first-ever biathlon medal with silver. Skardino retained her spot on the podium in third — another first for Belarus with two athletes winning medals in the same event at the Winter Olympics.
And Domracheva became the first Belarus athlete to win two gold medals at the same Winter Games.
“I cannot say it was an easier race for me,” Domracheva said, referring to her 37.6-second win in the preceding pursuit. “In a few loops I was together with Soukalova and she followed me quite easy. I tried to do everything. That was fighting today. On some parts of the track I was so tired and after the downhills, I sit …. almost without any power, but you need to recover on the downhills and be clever coming into the shooting range.”
That was where Domracheva made the difference. Clean shooting — or as close to it as possible — is essential in an individual start, with each penalty adding a minute to an athlete’s total time.
Even with a penalty, Domracheva won by a minute and 15.7 seconds, but mostly because she skied the fastest third, fourth and fifth loops, and took her time in the range. Soukalova placed fourth with two misses, 1:57.5 behind the winner.
“Today … the course was harder and the loop was more difficult in terms of relief,” Domracheva said, comparing the 15 k individual to the 10 k pursuit.
“But both of them I cherish them and value them very much,” she said of her two medals. “With this one I just confirmed that I was an Olympic champion, so that was very important.”
From Rural Training to Olympic Medal
Selina Gasparin of Switzerland gimaced her way through a tough final loop to hang on to a silver medal.
The oldest of three sisters, Gasparin, 29, followed the lead of middle child Elisa, who captured eighth at the Olympics in last Saturday’s sprint. It was by far a career best and first international top 10 for the 22-year-old Elisa.
On Thursday, Selina Gasparin continued the family’s good showing by not only shooting perfectly for the first time in her career, but becoming the first Swiss biathlete to medal at the Olympics.
Two months ago, she became her country’s first biathlete to win a World Cup. That’s when she started to dream big, specifically for Sochi.
“I have never won a medal in my whole life, no junior championship or European championship, nothing,” she said.
Growing up in a rural part of southeast Switzerland, the Upper Engadin region, Gasparin said she followed the lead of Elisa, who tried biathlon first with a friend. Once she started training with the national team, Gasparin realized she needed to train at home where “there is nothing,” she said.
“I had to ask the farmer if I could put some targets for shooting,” she said.
She also had to find some suitable paved roads for rollerskiing. “It took me almost ten years now to build it all up. It was also motivating to be the first one in World Championships and the first woman ever in Olympic Games in Vancouver, first World Cup win … now it’s like the first medal ever for Switzerland. We have no world championship medal so for me it’s really crazy.”
With silver in hand, she’s excited to go home.
“I [said] that if I come home with a medal, I want every Swiss to know what biathlon is,” she said. “Because some thought it was like running or cycling or something.”
Gasparin was also excited to find success on the same day as Swiss cross-country skier Dario Cologna, who won the men’s 15 k classic individual start Friday afternoon. Cologna hails from Vail Müstair, less than an hour drive from Gasparin’s hometown of Samedan. Both speak the regional language of Romansh.
“It’s a very special day for [people] of my language,” she said. “We are all from a small area in Switzerland. It’s only about point-five percent of the population that speaks Romansh. It’s kind of like a secret language.”
Russian-Born Skardino Makes Belarus History
Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus leaving the range after one of her perfect shooting bouts.
After starting out as a cross-country skier on St. Petersburg junior team, Skardino, 28, switched to biathlon at age 20 when she was just about to retire from the sport.
“The junior coach suggested I try biathlon and I liked that very much,” she said through a translator. “I thought of finishing my career, but once I started shooting I liked it … then it was not opting for Belarus, but it was opting for biathlon. The Belarus national team suggested that I represent Belarus so I tried that and I liked that.”
She never anticipated to become a Belarus citizen, it just worked out that way. On Friday, she was happy it did as she made history with Domracheva.
“It was my dream to be on the same to be on the podium with Daria and I’m very glad that it came true,” she said.
Domracheva said the team’s depth is a testament to their success.
“Now you see that Belarus is a really strong team,” she said. “Only with a good team around you can achieve these results.”
The second gold wasn’t quite as emotional for the winner, but that’s because she was prepared.
“This was my dream and helped me very much to be less emotional after,” she said. “I got very emotional after I won the first medal. I tried to control my emotions to be a new Daria … to compete, to perform and to enjoy the work that I love.”
Tora Berger leading Olena Pidhrushna (UKR) and Norwegian teammate Ann Kristin Flatland (r) on the penultimate lap of Sunday’s 10 k pursuit at the IBU World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic. Berger won the race for her second gold of the week (after the mixed relay) and followed up with her third victory on Wednesday in the 15 k individual.
For 31-year-old Tora Berger, it just keeps getting better. Norway’s leading female biathlete took control at the International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Championships on Wednesday, cruising through the 15-kilometer individual race to not only defend her title, but do so without error in Nové Město na Moravě, Czech Republic.
Starting 62nd of 118 women, Berger attacked the five-lap course to catch contenders like Ukrainian sisters Valj and Vita Semerenko. And while the freshly fallen snow was slow and a strong crosswind in the range made shooting difficult, Berger remained calm and collected, shooting clean through three stages to take the lead by more than 40 seconds.
With one more stage and two laps to go, anything could potentially happen, even for Berger, the event’s defending world champion who already notched gold in Sunday’s pursuit and the opening mixed relay of this year’s World Championships.
Norwegian Tora Berger talking about her 15 k individual victory in a press conference on Wednesday at the 2013 IBU World Championships in Nove Mesto, Czech Republic.
“I knew that if I shot clean today I had a chance to be the winner,” Berger said in a post-race press conference.
She did so – for her first time in a World Championships 15 k individual race – knocking down all five targets on the final standing en route to her third victory of the week and seventh world title.
One of just three women to shoot to perfection on Wednesday, Berger didn’t let off the gas after last time in the range. With a lead of 1 minute and 25 seconds, she then clocked the second-fastest final lap and had the fifth-fastest course time of the day.
Only Germany’s Andrea Henkel in bib 71 came close, finishing second, 52.7 seconds behind Berger’s winning time of 44:52.5. Along with France’s Marie Laure Brunet, who ended up 19th, Henkel shot clean for her 12th World Championships medal and first individual podium since 2008.
“I knew how important the shooting range is,” said Henkel, 35. “I thought the individual race is the biggest chance for me to win another medal so I took this chance.”
Out of all her medals, she said each is special. “Behind each medal there’s a little story, and I think this is another nice one,” Henkel said.
Also on the World Championships podium for the first time since 2008, Valj Semerenko hung on after starting third and missing one shot on the first prone. She cleaned the next three stages and finished in the lead, but told her congratulators to wait; the best skiers were nearly 40 bibs back.
She was right. Poland’s Magdalena Gwizdon in bib 42 led through the first three stages, with one penalty on the first standing, but fell out of contention with two more misses and ultimately placed 18th. Vita Semerenko then moved to first with three clean stages, but missed one on the last standing to end up fifth (+2:25.9).
Slovakia’s Anastasiya Kuzmina cleaned the first two stages, but suffered a penalty on the second prone, losing 40 seconds to Berger. Kuzmina missed one more on the final stage to place fourth, just 12.5 seconds off the podium.
And while the time penalties were costly – as they always are in individual races – Valj Semerenko managed to keep her head in the game.
“The miss was quite a shock for me, but it was OK,” she said. “I told myself that every miss in this race puts you about 10 places behind so I [skied as hard] as I could and I hoped to lead the race.”
For Semerenko, who finished 1:42.5 back from Berger, the medal was her first since her 2008 women’s relay captured second. Perhaps most notably, was her third in a non-team event at the World Cup level.
“I told myself if I deserve a medal, I will win one, and I just tried my best,” Semerenko said.
![Biathlon Canada's Emma Lunder finishing 21st for her career-best IBU World Cup result on Thursday at the women's 15 k individual (her first time racing that distance) in Antholz, Italy. (Photo: ARD broadcast screenshot)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2017/01/Lunder-big.jpg")
![Susan Dunklee (US Biathlon) racing to 11th in Thursday's 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/Dunklee12022015cm19_800x500.jpg")
![Canada's Megan Heinicke (l) leads Marine Bolliet of France in the women's 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Heinicke cleaned to place 12th, one of four top-15's this season. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2015-02-12_b9cc055e97b1946.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Kaisa Mäkäräinen of Finland celebrates her 14th IBU World Cup win in the women's 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2015-02-12_734cd4e46ec1ad0.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Darya Domracheva of Belarus racing though the fog to second despite one penalty in the women's 15 k individual at the IBU World Cup in Olso, Norway. (Photo: IBU/Christian Manzoni)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/2015-02-12_db48415784c8728.jpg_image_scaler_800x0.jpg")
![Hannah Dreissigacker (US Biathlon) racing to 33rd in the IBU World Cup 15 k individual on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. (Photo: USBA/NordicFocus)](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2015/02/Dreissigacker12022015cm109.jpg")
![Dasha Domracheva racing to her second gold of these Olympics in Friday's 15 k individual start. She became the first Belarusian athlete to do so at the same Winter Games, winning by more than a minute and 15 seconds in Sochi, Russia.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/Domracheva-Skiing.jpg")
![Dasha Domracheva of Belarus in the range. She ended up with a single penalty to win the Olympic 15 k individual on Friday night in Sochi, Russia.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/Domracheva-Shooting.jpg")
![Selina Gasparin kisses her skis, which helped her to the 10th-best course time of the day and a silver medal.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/Gasparin-Kiss.jpg")
![Selina Gasparin of Switzerland gimaced her way through a tough final loop to hang on to a silver medal.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/Gasparin-Dkiing.jpg")
![Nadezhda Skardino of Belarus leaving the range after one of her perfect shooting bouts.](http://fasterskier.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/02/Skardino-takes-off.jpg")
