# Biathlon at the 1972 Winter Olympics – Individual

The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 1972 Winter Olympics was held on 9 February, at Makomanai Biathlon Site. Each miss of the target cost two minutes, while hitting the outer circle cost one minute.

## Summary

Alexander Tikhonov and Dieter Speer, who between them had the last three world titles, were two of the fastest skiers, but neither managed to medal; Speer took seven minutes of penalties to put himself out of contention, and Tikhonov was unable to recover from three penalties on the first shoot, as he managed to get back to 4th place, but finished more than twenty seconds clear of the medalists. The winner was the defending Olympic champion Magnar Solberg. Solberg led early, and limited his penalties to only two, one of the better rounds of the day. Silver went to Hansjörg Knauthe, who was one of only two men to receive only one shooting penalty. Lars-Göran Arwidson took bronze, holding off Tikhonov by 30 seconds. Finland's Esko Saira skied even quicker than Tikhonov, but had five minutes in penalties, and ended up 6th.
Solberg remains the only champion to defend his title.

## Results

Penalties refer to minutes added, as described above, not (necessarily) number of targets missed.
| Rank | Bib | Name | Country | Ski Time | Penalties (P+S+P+S) | Result | Deficit |
| | 28 | Magnar Solberg | Norway | 1:13:55.50 | 2 (0+1+1+0) | 1:15:55.50 | – |
| | 30 | Hansjörg Knauthe | East Germany | 1:15:07.60 | 1 (1+0+0+0) | 1:16:07.60 | +12.10 |
| | 38 | Lars-Göran Arwidson | Sweden | 1:14:27.03 | 2 (0+0+2+0) | 1:16:27.03 | +31.53 |
| 4 | 29 | Aleksandr Tikhonov | Soviet Union | 1:12:48.65 | 4 (3+1+0+0) | 1:16:48.65 | +53.15 |
| 5 | 9 | Yrjö Salpakari | Finland | 1:14:51.43 | 2 (0+1+1+0) | 1:16:51.43 | +55.93 |
| 6 | 40 | Esko Saira | Finland | 1:12:34.80 | 5 (2+1+1+1) | 1:17:34.80 | +1:39.30 |
| 7 | 15 | Viktor Mamatov | Soviet Union | 1:16:16.26 | 2 (1+1+0+0) | 1:18:16.26 | +2:20.76 |
| 8 | 48 | Tor Svendsberget | Norway | 1:15:26.54 | 3 (0+1+1+1) | 1:18:26.54 | +2:31.04 |
| 9 | 36 | Aleksander Klima | Poland | 1:17:00.86 | 2 (1+0+0+1) | 1:19:00.86 | +3:05.36 |
| 10 | 24 | Daniel Claudon | France | 1:18:14.67 | 1 (0+1+0+0) | 1:19:14.67 | +3:19.17 |
| 11 | 41 | Keith Oliver | Great Britain | 1:17:40.31 | 3 (0+0+1+2) | 1:20:40.31 | +4:44.81 |
| 12 | 47 | Ivan Biakov | Soviet Union | 1:17:42.78 | 3 (0+2+1+0) | 1:20:42.78 | +4:47.28 |
| 13 | 26 | Dieter Speer | East Germany | 1:13:43.63 | 7 (1+1+1+4) | 1:20:43.63 | +4:48.13 |
| 14 | 11 | Peter Karns | United States | 1:18:59.67 | 2 (0+0+0+2) | 1:20:59.67 | +5:04.17 |
| 15 | 2 | Günter Bartnik | East Germany | 1:16:01.73 | 5 (1+1+1+2) | 1:21:01.73 | +5:06.23 |
| 16 | 19 | Willy Bertin | Italy | 1:16:03.04 | 5 (1+0+0+4) | 1:21:03.04 | +5:07.54 |
| 17 | 22 | Miki Shibuya | Japan | 1:16:57.27 | 5 (1+1+0+3) | 1:21:57.27 | +6:01.77 |
| 18 | 3 | Kåre Hovda | Norway | 1:16:20.37 | 6 (1+2+1+2) | 1:22:20.37 | +6:24.87 |
| 19 | 8 | Rinnat Safin | Soviet Union | 1:15:22.59 | 7 (3+2+1+1) | 1:22:22.59 | +6:27.09 |
| 20 | 52 | Horst Koschka | East Germany | 1:17:24.58 | 5 (0+3+0+2) | 1:22:24.58 | +6:29.08 |
| 21 | 46 | Holmfrid Olsson | Sweden | 1:19:28.78 | 3 (0+0+1+2) | 1:22:28.78 | +6:33.28 |
| 22 | 37 | Giovanni Astegiano | Italy | 1:16:45.90 | 6 (3+1+1+1) | 1:22:45.90 | +6:50.40 |
| 23 | 1 | Shozo Sasaki | Japan | 1:18:05.54 | 5 (1+3+1+0) | 1:23:05.54 | +7:10.04 |
| 24 | 20 | Dennis Donahue | United States | 1:19:20.39 | 4 (1+0+3+0) | 1:23:20.39 | +7:24.89 |
| 25 | 31 | Isao Ono | Japan | 1:16:26.83 | 7 (5+0+0+2) | 1:23:26.83 | +7:31.33 |
| 26 | 7 | Jeffrey Stevens | Great Britain | 1:19:28.95 | 4 (0+2+1+1) | 1:23:28.95 | +7:33.45 |
| 27 | 21 | Mauri Röppänen | Finland | 1:16:45.88 | 7 (1+2+2+2) | 1:23:45.88 | +7:50.38 |
| 28 | 35 | Victor Fontana | Romania | 1:19:17.85 | 5 (0+2+3+0) | 1:24:17.85 | +8:22.35 |
| 29 | 33 | Ragnar Tveiten | Norway | 1:17:19.91 | 7 (2+3+0+2) | 1:24:19.91 | +8:24.41 |
| 30 | 49 | Juhani Suutarinen | Finland | 1:14:26.99 | 10 (2+2+0+6) | 1:24:26.99 | +8:30.49 |
| 31 | 5 | Pierantonio Clementi | Italy | 1:19:28.74 | 6 (3+1+0+2) | 1:25:28.74 | +9:33.24 |
| 32 | 27 | Vilmoş Gheorghe | Romania | 1:17:52.27 | 8 (2+5+0+1) | 1:25:52.27 | +9:56.77 |
| 33 | 10 | Andrzej Rapacz | Poland | 1:17:21.02 | 9 (2+4+0+3) | 1:26:21.02 | +10:25.52 |
| 34 | 42 | Nicolae Veştea | Romania | 1:21:08.21 | 6 (0+1+1+4) | 1:27:08.21 | +11:12.71 |
| 35 | 25 | Józef Stopka | Poland | 1:19:18.66 | 8 (2+2+1+3) | 1:27:18.66 | +11:23.16 |
| 36 | 13 | Ladislav Žižka | Czechoslovakia | 1:16:36.81 | 11 (6+1+1+3) | 1:27:36.81 | +11:41.31 |
| 37 | 39 | René Arpin | France | 1:19:52.64 | 8 (1+3+1+3) | 1:27:52.64 | +11:57.14 |
| 38 | 43 | Kazuo Sasakubo | Japan | 1:19:07.43 | 9 (3+4+1+1) | 1:28:07.43 | +12:11.93 |
| 39 | 16 | Arnošt Hájek | Czechoslovakia | 1:19:22.37 | 9 (3+3+2+1) | 1:28:22.37 | +12:26.87 |
| 40 | 45 | Lino Jordan | Italy | 1:16:26.09 | 12 (2+3+2+5) | 1:28:26.09 | +12:30.59 |
| 41 | 32 | Terry Morse | United States | 1:21:40.14 | 7 (1+1+4+1) | 1:28:40.14 | +12:44.64 |
| 42 | 14 | Olle Petrusson | Sweden | 1:16:40.58 | 12 (2+0+5+5) | 1:28:40.58 | +12:45.08 |
| 43 | 18 | Alan Notley | Great Britain | 1:21:48.72 | 7 (1+2+4+0) | 1:28:48.72 | +12:53.22 |
| 44 | 50 | Stanislav Fajstavr | Czechoslovakia | 1:19:53.33 | 9 (3+1+3+2) | 1:28:53.33 | +12:57.83 |
| 45 | 54 | Jay Bowerman | United States | 1:22:13.71 | 7 (1+3+1+2) | 1:29:13.71 | +13:18.21 |
| 46 | 23 | Josef Niedermeier | West Germany | 1:21:26.44 | 8 (2+0+3+3) | 1:29:26.44 | +13:30.94 |
| 47 | 34 | Pavel Ploc | Czechoslovakia | 1:18:38.79 | 11 (1+6+0+4) | 1:29:38.79 | +13:43.29 |
| 48 | 44 | Andrzej Fiedor | Poland | 1:19:17.25 | 11 (3+4+3+1) | 1:30:17.25 | +14:21.75 |
| 49 | 17 | Torsten Wadman | Sweden | 1:17:17.56 | 13 (2+2+5+4) | 1:30:17.56 | +14:22.06 |
| 50 | 4 | Theo Merkel | West Germany | 1:19:58.17 | 11 (2+3+2+4) | 1:30:58.17 | +15:02.67 |
| 51 | 53 | Aimé Gruet-Masson | France | 1:18:44.41 | 15 (2+6+4+3) | 1:33:44.41 | +17:48.91 |
| 52 | 6 | Constantin Carabela | Romania | 1:22:45.95 | 11 (3+5+0+3) | 1:33:45.95 | +17:50.45 |
| 53 | 51 | Malcolm Hirst | Great Britain | 1:20:55.59 | 14 (0+6+4+4) | 1:34:55.59 | +19:00.09 |
| - | 12 | Paul Chassagne | France | DNF | - | - | - |