Greis Adds One More to a Leading Gold-Medal Haul

Michael Greis skied into the final shooting stage still in Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s shadow.

When Bjoerndalen missed two targets and Greis shot clean, the 29-year-old German became the first three-time gold medalist at the Winter Olympics.

Greis also surpassed the Norwegian as biathlon’s biggest star.

“It’s incredible that I’m the most successful athlete of theGames,” said Greis, who won the first Olympic men’s 15-kilometer mass start race Saturday.

“It’s a very emotional moment and all my nerves have gone now,” he said.

In the women’s 12.5-kilometer race, Anna Carin Olofsson gave Sweden its first biathlon gold medal since 1960, winning by 18.8 seconds over Germany’s Kati Wilhelm. Uschi Disl of Germany took third.

It looked for much of the race as if Bjoerndalen would finally win a gold medal in these Games. But as he circled the 150-meter penalty loop twice, Greis, who began the last shooting stage in third place, flew past him.

Greis won by 6.3 seconds ahead of second-place Tomasz Sikora of Poland. Bjoerndalen crossed 12.3 seconds behind Greis for the bronze.

Greis also won the 20-kilometer race and was part of a gold medal-winning relay team. He became the first athlete with three gold medals in Turin.

American Jay Hakkinen capped an up-and-down Olympics with a 13th-place finish. He was running in sixth before falling back on the final lap.

Hakkinen was surprised even to make the field after his epic collapse in the men’s 10-kilometer race in which he missed his five prone targets. He made up for it with a 10th-place finish in the 20-kilometer race, the best showing by an American in Olympic biathlon history.

“Maybe it was not my time,” he said. “Sometimes you have to get close before you finally make the final step.”