Biathlon at the 2006 Winter Olympics – Men's individual

Men's biathlon individual at the XX Olympic Winter Games
Men's biathlon 20 km individual final
Venue	Cesana San Sicario
Dates	February 11
Competitors	89 from 35 nations
Winning time	54:23.0
Medalists
01 ! Michael Greis  Germany 02 ! Ole Einar Bjørndalen  Norway 03 ! Halvard Hanevold  Norway
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01 !		Michael Greis	Germany
02 !		Ole Einar Bjørndalen	Norway
03 !		Halvard Hanevold	Norway

The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy was held on 11 February, at Cesana San Sicario.

The individual race consisted of five laps around a four kilometre loop with four stops at the shooting range. During each shooting section, each biathlete fired five shots at five targets. Misses resulted in penalties of one minute per miss being added to the time for the course. The first and third shooting sections were conducted in the prone position, while the second and fourth were done standing. A total of 88 biathletes competed, starting with a staggered start and 30 seconds behind each competitor.

Michael Greis of Germany hit 19 of the 20 targets and used a net time of 54:23.0 (with one penalty minute) to clinch the gold medal, 16 seconds ahead of Norway's Ole Einar Bjørndalen. Norway also won the bronze medal, with Halvard Hanevold beating Sergei Tchepikov by 0.8 seconds despite two penalty minutes to the Russian's one.

The previous year's trial World Cup event at this track saw Michael Greis of Germany win the event in a time of 53:18.7. At the 2005 World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, the Czech Roman Dostál won, while Ole Einar Bjørndalen was the defending Olympic champion, as he was in all the other men's events (except the mass start, which is held for the first time at the Olympics). However, neither Bjørndalen (9th) nor Dostal (33rd) headed the men's individual World Cup standings—the German Michael Greis did.