Former Olympic cross-country skiing champion Stina Nilsson will have to wait a little longer to make her Olympic debut in biathlon after failing to join Sweden’s team for the 7.5km sprint on Friday.
The PyeongChang 2018 gold medalist, who also took silver in relays and team sprints in 2018 before announcing her shock transition to biathlon in March 2020, was written off for Friday’s race after coach Johannes Lukas chose to give Anna Magnusson an Olympic debut. She will be joined by Linn Persson and Hanna and Elvira Oeberg. Mona Brorsson, whose 12th place in the 15 km individual race made her the best-performing Swede, is another surprising omission.
“Obviously Stina and Mona are disappointed, it’s no secret. They would probably have been selected in almost every other women’s team (in the race), but we only have four places”, said Johannes Lukas. “It’s a tough shooting range here, the wind ensures it’s not that easy for her … you have to remember that Nilsson has become one of the best athletes in the last two seasons and as she said, she would be in almost every other team”, added he.
For Stina Nilsson, there is only one more opportunity to make her Olympic biathlon debut, as it could be in the classic 4x6km relay on Wednesday.
She will not be able to take part in the pursuit on Sunday, as only the first 60 of the sprint qualify for it, as well as for the mass start next Saturday. It will feature all the medalists from the individual starts in Beijing, the top 15 of the World Cup and the rest of the best ranked from the starts in the Chinese capital.
