# Biathlon at the 1976 Winter Olympics – Individual

The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 1976 Winter Olympics was held on 6 February, at Seefeld. Each miss of the target cost two minutes, while hitting the outer circle cost one minute.

## Summary

Defending world champion Heikki Ikola was among the leaders after the first shooting around, but he trailed Soviet Aleksandr Tikhonov, who set a torrid pace. Tikhonov led by thirty seconds at the halfway point, despite missing a shot, and after shooting clear the third time, the Soviet was up by more than a minute on Ikola and Nikolay Kruglov, the worlds silver medalist. However, at the final shot, Tikhonov collapsed, taking six penalty minutes to fall out of medal contention. Ikola took two minutes in penalties as well, meaning Kruglov, who had just one minute penalty, was able to pass him to win the gold medal. Aleksandr Elizarov could have taken silver with a better shooting performance than Ikola, but matched the Finn with two minutes in penalties, and while he cut Ikola's lead in half on the final section, he was left in third place. Tikhonov ended up with the fastest ski time by almost two full minutes, but his late misses meant he ended up in fifth.

## 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 |
| | 9 | Nikolay Kruglov | Soviet Union | 1:12:12.26 | 2 (1+0+0+1) | 1:14:12.26 | – |
| | 21 | Heikki Ikola | Finland | 1:13:54.10 | 2 (0+0+0+2) | 1:15:54.10 | +1:41.84 |
| | 49 | Aleksandr Elizarov | Soviet Union | 1:13:05.57 | 3 (1+0+0+2) | 1:16:05.57 | +1:53.31 |
| 4 | 3 | Willy Bertin | Italy | 1:13:50.36 | 3 (0+3+0+0) | 1:16:50.36 | +2:38.10 |
| 5 | 34 | Aleksandr Tikhonov | Soviet Union | 1:10:18.33 | 7 (0+1+0+6) | 1:17:18.33 | +3:06.07 |
| 6 | 15 | Esko Saira | Finland | 1:15:32.84 | 2 (0+0+0+2) | 1:17:32.84 | +3:20.58 |
| 7 | 40 | Lino Jordan | Italy | 1:15:49.83 | 2 (0+0+2+0) | 1:17:49.83 | +3:37.57 |
| 8 | 23 | Sune Adolfsson | Sweden | 1:16:00.50 | 2 (0+0+0+2) | 1:18:00.50 | +3:48.24 |
| 9 | 33 | Tor Svendsberget | Norway | 1:15:10.13 | 3 (0+2+1+0) | 1:18:10.13 | +3:57.87 |
| 10 | 8 | Lars-Göran Arwidson | Sweden | 1:13:34.37 | 5 (0+1+1+3) | 1:18:34.37 | +4:22.11 |
| 11 | 31 | Heinrich Mehringer | West Germany | 1:16:49.15 | 2 (1+1+0+0) | 1:18:49.15 | +4:36.89 |
| 12 | 36 | Manfred Geyer | East Germany | 1:13:11.37 | 6 (1+3+2+0) | 1:19:11.37 | +4:59.11 |
| 13 | 43 | Juhani Suutarinen | Finland | 1:17:25.89 | 2 (1+0+1+0) | 1:19:25.89 | +5:13.63 |
| 14 | 29 | Hansruedi Süssli | Switzerland | 1:16:53.73 | 3 (0+0+0+3) | 1:19:53.73 | +5:41.47 |
| 15 | 51 | Karl-Heinz Wolf | East Germany | 1:15:06.89 | 5 (1+2+2+0) | 1:20:06.89 | +5:54.63 |
| 16 | 7 | Gheorghe Voicu | Romania | 1:16:01.52 | 5 (1+2+1+1) | 1:21:01.52 | +6:49.26 |
| 17 | 13 | Antonín Kříž | Czechoslovakia | 1:17:11.36 | 4 (1+1+1+1) | 1:21:11.36 | +6:59.10 |
| 18 | 10 | Kjell Hovda | Norway | 1:16:24.45 | 5 (0+0+0+5) | 1:21:24.45 | +7:12.19 |
| 19 | 17 | Jan Szpunar | Poland | 1:17:27.20 | 4 (0+3+1+0) | 1:21:27.20 | +7:14.94 |
| 20 | 45 | Svein Engen | Norway | 1:14:27.24 | 7 (2+4+0+1) | 1:21:27.24 | +7:15.98 |
| 21 | 35 | Alfred Eder | Austria | 1:14:42.52 | 8 (2+3+1+2) | 1:22:42.52 | +8:30.26 |
| 22 | 22 | René Arpin | France | 1:13:50.92 | 9 (3+2+1+3) | 1:22:50.92 | +8:38.66 |
| 23 | 28 | Pierantonio Clementi | Italy | 1:16:08.86 | 7 (1+3+1+2) | 1:23:08.86 | +8:56.60 |
| 24 | 25 | Ladislav Žižka | Czechoslovakia | 1:19:09.03 | 4 (0+2+2+0) | 1:23:09.03 | +8:56.77 |
| 25 | 2 | Albert Mächler | Switzerland | 1:17:28.66 | 6 (2+1+1+2) | 1:23:28.66 | +9:16.40 |
| 26 | 47 | Josef Niedermeier | West Germany | 1:18:33.63 | 5 (0+3+0+2) | 1:23:33.63 | +9:21.37 |
| 27 | 11 | Manfred Beer | East Germany | 1:18:42.50 | 5 (1+2+0+2) | 1:23:42.50 | +9:30.24 |
| 28 | 19 | Wojciech Truchan | Poland | 1:16:09.93 | 8 (1+1+0+5) | 1:24:09.93 | +9:57.67 |
| 29 | 46 | Graeme Ferguson | Great Britain | 1:18:18.09 | 6 (1+2+3+2) | 1:24:18.09 | +10:05.83 |
| 30 | 48 | Hiroyuki Deguchi | Japan | 1:18:18.09 | 4 (0+2+0+4) | 1:24:53.84 | +10:41.58 |
| 31 | 6 | Gheorghe Gârniţă | Romania | 1:20:53.84 | 4 (0+0+2+2) | 1:25:00.71 | +10:48.45 |
| 32 | 27 | Khristo Madzharov | Bulgaria | 1:17:00.71 | 8 (0+1+0+7) | 1:25:02.62 | +10:50.36 |
| 33 | 50 | Jean-Claude Viry | France | 1:18:09.51 | 7 (0+2+1+4) | 1:25:09.51 | +10:57.25 |
| 34 | 1 | Alois Kanamüller | West Germany | 1:17:25.26 | 8 (1+2+2+3) | 1:25:25.26 | +11:13.00 |
| 35 | 5 | Lyle Nelson | United States | 1:15:27.50 | 10 (1+4+3+2) | 1:25:27.50 | +11:15.24 |
| 36 | 24 | Malcolm Hirst | Great Britain | 1:16:52.97 | 9 (2+1+1+5) | 1:25:52.97 | +11:40.71 |
| 37 | 4 | Franz-Josef Weber | Austria | 1:16:14.92 | 10 (3+0+1+6) | 1:26:14.92 | +12:02.66 |
| 38 | 26 | Manabu Suzuki | Japan | 1:19:35.79 | 7 (1+1+1+4) | 1:26:35.79 | +12:23.53 |
| 39 | 12 | Jeffrey Stevens | Great Britain | 1:18:15.87 | 9 (1+1+0+7) | 1:27:15.87 | +13:03.61 |
| 40 | 38 | Christian Danuser | Switzerland | 1:20:16.43 | 7 (0+3+0+4) | 1:27:16.43 | +13:04.17 |
| 41 | 41 | Kazuo Sasakubo | Japan | 1:21:35.31 | 6 (0+2+1+3) | 1:27:35.31 | +13:23.05 |
| 42 | 18 | Aimé Gruet-Masson | France | 1:18:35.81 | 9 (2+2+0+5) | 1:27:35.81 | +13:23.55 |
| 43 | 14 | Iliya Todorov | Bulgaria | 1:20:57.60 | 7 (1+2+1+3) | 1:27:57.60 | +13:45.34 |
| 44 | 39 | Josef Malínský | Czechoslovakia | 1:19:09.18 | 9 (1+4+1+3) | 1:28:09.18 | +13:56.92 |
| 45 | 42 | Nicolae Cristoloveanu | Romania | 1:20:15.53 | 8 (0+2+1+5) | 1:28:15.53 | +14:03.27 |
| 46 | 30 | Andrzej Rapacz | Poland | 1:18:30.82 | 10 (1+4+1+4) | 1:28:30.82 | +14:18.56 |
| 47 | 37 | Martin Hagen | United States | 1:20:49.20 | 8 (2+4+2+0) | 1:28:49.20 | +14:36.94 |
| 48 | 44 | Torsten Wadman | Sweden | 1:15:20.34 | 15 (2+2+4+7) | 1:30:20.34 | +16:08.08 |
| 49 | 52 | Klaus Farbmacher | Austria | 1:20:31.07 | 16 (4+5+3+4) | 1:36:31.07 | +22:18.81 |
| 50 | 20 | Ueng Ming-yih | Republic of China | 1:32:09.37 | 10 (4+2+1+3) | 1:42:09.37 | +27:57.11 |
| 51 | 16 | Shen Li-chien | Republic of China | 1:49:32.91 | 9 (2+3+2+2) | 1:58:32.91 | +44:20.65 |
| – | 32 | Peter Dascoulias | United States | DNF | – | – | – |