Last Updated: 25.Feb.2014

Friday’s biathlon relay was the last race in Sochi for Susan Dunklee and Hannah Dreissigacker, the two biathletes representing the GRP at the Olympics Games. They had an impressive run of results over the previous two weeks, with Hannah notching a personal best and Susan making history with several best ever results for the American team. Their mixed relay along with Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey was a bit disappointing, not because of the final result, 8th, but because they were in contact with the leaders following Susan’s scramble leg.

The US women have stepped it up in biathlon relays this year, taking 8th place in both relays they contested in the regular World Cup circuit. In Friday’s relay, they used the same order with Susan scrambling. She came through for the tag once again in contact with the leaders. Hannah was next, and while she has been shooting well in relays up until the Olympics, she ended up using all 6 spares (3 in each stage) to clean her targets. However, she avoided the dreaded penalty lap. Each spare takes 5-10 seconds to load by hand, so it is reasonable to think that the team could have finished up to a minute faster with fewer spares. They still fought it out in the remaining legs and ended up in 7th place, 2:11 behind the winning team from Ukraine and one place ahead of Canada, who was in medal contention up until their final leg.

We want to congratulate both Hannah and Susan on a fantastic run at their first Olympics! It has been a lot of fun to watch the races and hear about their experiences. They will continue their World Cup season with a sprint, pursuit, and mass start in Pokljuka, Slovenia.

Results from the women’s relay are here.

Also, Hannah made a great video of the Olympic Village by asking people to dance along with the song “Happy”. Check it out here!