Biathlon at the 2002 Winter Olympics – Women's pursuit

Women's biathlon pursuit at the XIX Olympic Winter Games
Venue	Soldier Hollow
Dates	February 16
Competitors	52 from 21 nations
Winning time	31:07.7
Medalists
01 ! Olga Pyleva  Russia 02 ! Kati Wilhelm  Germany 03 ! Irina Nikulchina  Bulgaria
2006 →

01 !		Olga Pyleva	Russia
02 !		Kati Wilhelm	Germany
03 !		Irina Nikulchina	Bulgaria

The Women's 10 kilometre pursuit biathlon competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics was held on 16 February, at Soldier Hollow. Competitors raced over four 2.5 kilometre loops and one 2.75 kilometre loop of the skiing course, shooting four times, twice prone and twice standing. Each miss was penalized by requiring the competitor to race over an 150 metre penalty loop.

The pursuit was a newly introduced race at the 2002 Olympics, with athletes starting in the same order, and with the same time gaps, as their finish in the sprint event a few days earlier. Only the top 60 from the sprint were eligible to enter, though three athletes of the top 60 opted not to start.

Kati Wilhelm, winner of the sprint race, started with a 16 second advantage over Uschi Disl, and nearly 40 seconds over her next chaser, Magdalena Forsberg. However, Wilhelm had also won the sprint at the 2001 World Championships, only to fail to medal in the pursuit, which was won by Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée, starting 4th in Salt Lake. Forsberg had won the Overall and pursuit World Cups the previous season, as well as leading the 2001/02 World Cup, including winning each of the first three pursuit races of the year. Skjelbreid-Poirée was close to Forsberg in the rankings though, and had won the most recent World Cup event. Given that Forsberg and Skjelbreid-Poirée had also finished first and second at the test event in Salt Lake the year previous, both seemed serious threats to the top 3.

Wilhelm's lead was short-lived, as she missed three shots on her first attempts, falling quickly to 6th. Disl was unable to take advantage, though, missing two herself, meaning that Forsberg, who shot clear, held the lead after the shoot, followed by Skjelbreid-Poirée, who missed one shot, but still managed to emerge in second. On the second shoot, Forsberg missed her first, but with Skjelbreid-Poirée missing as well, the Swede was able to hold the lead. However, she was now pursued by Wilhelm, who rebounded from her early misses by shooting clear, along with Irina Nikulchina from Bulgaria and Slovenian Andreja Grašič, both of whom started well over a minute behind, but shot clear at each of the first two targets to sit in the top 4.