Biathlon was on fire in Antholz 2026! Lisa Vittozzi and Julia Simon turned their careers diamond-bright, Quentin Fillon Maillet became France’s most decorated man and Sturla Holm Laegreid became the first man to win a medal in all four individual competitions.

Diamond-bright Lisa and Julia

Julia Simon, with a win in the Individual, and Lisa Vittozzi, with a triumph in the Olympic Pursuit, became only the seventh and eighth women to win at least one individual gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games and IBU World Championships, and have also claimed victory in the IBU World Cup Total Score.

Sturla makes biathlon history

After a relatively modest season by his standards, Sturla Holm Laegreid arrived in Antholz 2026 with a clear message from the Norwegian coaches: deliver in the Individual or be ruled out of the rest. He took bronze in the Individual, unexpectedly went private on Norwegian public TV, regrouped, and finished the Milano Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games with a medal in all four individual competitions — the first man ever to do so.

What Laegreid did during one Olympics - albeit without a gold medal - Quentin Fillon Maillet did in two, but there is even more glory to the Frenchman’s achievement: he is now an Olympic champion in the Individual, Sprint and Pursuit and has a bronze medal in the Mass Start, an achievement matched with Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s one. Two other biathlon all-time greats miss one individual Olympic medal: Martin Fourcade in the Sprint and Johannes Thingnes Boe in the Pursuit.

Quentin among Olympic giants

The Olympic biathlon competitions in Antholz began with gold in the Mixed Relay and ended with bronze in the Mass Start for Fillon Maillet. In between, he captured gold in the Sprint and another gold with the French men’s relay. With five Olympic gold medals three silver and one bronze, Quentin now ranks second — behind only Bjoerndalen — on the all-time men’s Olympic medals list.

Photos: IBU/Vianney Thibaut, Ola Wizor, Nordic Focus