Biathlon at the 1960 Winter Olympics – Individual


The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 1960 Winter Olympics was held on 21 February, at McKinney Creek Stadium. The firing ranges were located at the following points on the 20-kilometer course: 6.5 km — 200 meter range, 9.5 km — 250 meter range, 12.5 km — 150 meter range and 15 km — 100 meter range. The first three series were fired from a prone position, the last standing. Each miss of the target cost two minutes.

Results

became the first Olympic biathlon champion on the back of a perfect shooting performance, the only one of the event. The victory came despite Lestander's ski time, which was only 15th, right in the middle of the 30-man field. The defending world champion, Vladimir Melanin, had the third fastest ski time, but eight minutes in penalties left him fourth. the other medals went to racers with some of the better shooting performances; Antti Tyrväinen took just four minutes in penalties for silver, and Aleksandr Privalov only six minutes to win bronze. The two fastest skiers were Frenchmen Victor Arbez and René Mercier, both more than two minutes ahead of Privalov, and more than seven ahead of Lestander. However, both struggled on the range, Mercier missing 15 of 20 shots to incur a half-hour in penalties, and Abrez 18 of 20 to add 36 minutes to his time.
RankNameCountrySki TimeMissesResultDeficit
Klas Lestander1:33:21.60 1:33:21.6
Antti Tyrväinen1:29:57.72 1:33:57.7
Aleksandr Privalov1:28:54.23 1:34:54.2
Vladimir Melanin1:27:42.44 1:35:42.4
Valentin Pshenitsyn1:30:45.83 1:36:45.8
Dmitri Sokolov1:28:16.75 1:38:16.7
Ola Wærhaug1:36:35.81 1:38:35.8
Martti Meinilä1:29:17.05 1:39:17.0
Kuno Werner1:29:33.86 1:41:33.8
10Henry Hermansen1:34:20.14 1:42:20.1
11Jon Istad1:36:53.54 1:44:53.5+11:31.9
12Tage Lundin1:33:56.36 1:45:56.3+12:34.7
13Herbert Kirchner1:38:35.64 1:46:35.6+13:14.0
14John Burritt1:36:36.85 1:46:36.8+13:15.2
15Eero Laine1:33:28.37 1:47:28.3+14:06.7
16Sven Agge1:30:21.79 1:48:21.7+15:00.1
17Horst Nickel1:32:28.98 1:48:28.9+15:07.3
18Pentti Taskinen1:36:29.77 1:50:29.7+17:08.1
19Adolf Wiklund1:30:07.81:54:07.8+20:46.2
20Kurt Hinze1:36:36.59 1:54:36.5+21:14.9
21Dick Mize1:33:56.21:55:56.2+22:34.6
22René Mercier1:26:13.21:56:13.2+22:51.6
23Gustav Hanson1:40:06.29 1:58:06.2+24:44.6
24Larry Damon1:33:38.21:59:38.2+26:16.6
25Victor Arbez1:25:58.42:01:58.4+28:36.8
26Pál Sajgó1:34:27.32:02:27.3+29:05.7
27Gilbert Mercier1:29:16.62:03:16.6+29:55.0
28Paul Romand1:28:48.42:04:48.4+31:26.8
29John Moore1:40:50.82:08:50.8+35:29.2
30Norman Shutt1:45:36.52:11:36.5+38:14.9