Biathlon at the 1968 Winter Olympics – Individual

The men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition was one of the exciting events at the 1968 Winter Olympics. It took place on February 12 at Autrans. In biathlon, athletes ski a long distance and also stop to shoot at targets. If they missed the target, they had to add two minutes to their time, and if they hit only the outer circle, they added one minute. This test of both skiing skill and shooting accuracy made it a thrilling event for spectators.

Results

Two biathletes stood out in the individual event. Magnar Solberg was one of only two men to hit all their targets, and had the second fastest ski time. Aleksandr Tikhonov skied even faster, but lost time due to penalties, taking the silver medal. Vladimir Gundartsev won the bronze medal for the Soviet Union.

Rank	Bib	Name	Country	Ski Time	Penalties	Result	Deficit
	3	Magnar Solberg	Norway	1:13:45.9	0 (0+0+0+0)	1:13:45.9	–
	1	Aleksandr Tikhonov	Soviet Union	1:12:40.4	2 (1+1+0+0)	1:14:40.4	+54.5
	31	Vladimir Gundartsev	Soviet Union	1:16:27.4	2 (0+0+1+1)	1:18:27.4	+4:41.5
4	2	Stanisław Szczepaniak	Poland	1:17:56.8	1 (0+0+1+0)	1:18:56.8	+5:10.9
5	25	Arve Kinnari	Finland	1:17:47.9	2 (0+0+1+1)	1:19:47.9	+6:02.0
6	16	Nikolay Puzanov	Soviet Union	1:17:14.5	3 (0+1+1+1)	1:20:14.5	+6:28.6
7	58	Viktor Mamatov	Soviet Union	1:19:20.8	1 (1+0+0+0)	1:20:20.8	+6:34.9
8	17	Stanisław Łukaszczyk	Poland	1:16:28.1	4 (2+1+1+0)	1:20:28.1	+6:42.2
9	38	Kalevi Vähäkylä	Finland	1:17:56.5	3 (0+2+0+1)	1:20:56.5	+7:10.6
10	8	Horst Koschka	East Germany	1:18:37.7	3 (1+1+1+0)	1:21:37.7	+7:51.8
11	42	Jon Istad	Norway	1:19:43.1	2 (0+1+1+0)	1:21:43.1	+7:57.2
12	5	Theo Merkel	West Germany	1:18:10.5	4 (3+0+1+0)	1:22:10.5	+8:24.6
13	57	Ola Wærhaug	Norway	1:19:12.9	3 (0+2+1+0)	1:22:12.9	+8:27.0
14	11	Constantin Carabela	Romania	1:22:52.2	0 (0+0+0+0)	1:22:52.2	+9:06.3
15	40	Pavel Ploc	Czechoslovakia	1:18:05.0	5 (1+0+0+4)	1:23:05.0	+9:19.1
16	6	Roger Bean	Great Britain	1:19:07.5	5 (2+3+0+0)	1:24:07.5	+10:21.6
17	10	Lars-Göran Arwidson	Sweden	1:18:08.9	6 (0+3+0+3)	1:24:08.9	+10:23.0
18	19	Dieter Speer	East Germany	1:18:13.3	6 (2+2+1+1)	1:24:13.3	+10:27.4
19	24	Olle Petrusson	Sweden	1:18:31.2	6 (3+0+2+1)	1:24:31.2	+10:45.3
20	41	Holmfrid Olsson	Sweden	1:19:01.8	6 (2+2+2+0)	1:25:01.8	+11:15.9
21	53	Hansjörg Knauthe	East Germany	1:23:04.9	2 (1+1+0+0)	1:25:04.9	+11:19.0
22	26	Vilmoş Gheorghe	Romania	1:20:07.3	6 (3+0+3+0)	1:26:07.3	+12:21.4
23	50	Gheorghe Cimpoia	Romania	1:25:36.5	1 (0+0+1+0)	1:26:36.5	+12:50.6
24	44	Heinz Kluge	East Germany	1:19:55.2	7 (0+1+1+5)	1:26:55.2	+13:09.3
25	14	Yrjö Salpakari	Finland	1:20:11.6	7 (2+1+2+2)	1:27:11.6	+13:25.7
26	28	Ragnar Tveiten	Norway	1:16:17.4	11 (4+0+2+5)	1:27:17.4	+13:31.5
27	29	Ralph Wakley	United States	1:22:32.9	5 (1+1+3+0)	1:27:32.9	+13:47.0
28	27	Miki Shibuya	Japan	1:21:37.1	6 (1+1+4+0)	1:27:37.1	+13:51.2
29	39	Nicolae Bărbăşescu	Romania	1:24:05.3	4 (2+0+0+2)	1:28:05.3	+14:19.4
30	60	Nore Westin	Sweden	1:21:09.4	7 (1+2+2+2)	1:28:09.4	+14:23.5
31	54	Mauno Luukkonen	Finland	1:19:15.8	9 (4+2+3+0)	1:28:15.8	+14:29.9
32	35	Gerhard Gehring	West Germany	1:20:26.8	8 (2+1+2+3)	1:28:26.8	+14:40.9
33	9	Isao Ono	Japan	1:20:47.8	8 (2+0+1+5)	1:28:47.8	+15:01.9
34	46	Shozo Okuyama	Japan	1:21:51.0	7 (3+0+2+2)	1:28:51.0	+15:05.1
35	30	Jean-Claude Viry	France	1:19:16.2	10 (2+4+1+3)	1:29:16.2	+15:30.3
36	34	Frederick Andrew	Great Britain	1:22:21.3	7 (1+0+2+4)	1:29:21.3	+15:35.4
37	4	Bill Spencer	United States	1:20:17.7	10 (2+3+1+4)	1:30:17.7	+16:31.8
38	32	Bayanjavyn Damdinjav	Mongolia	1:24:30.7	6 (1+3+1+1)	1:30:30.7	+16:44.8
39	23	Xaver Kraus	West Germany	1:18:40.2	12 (4+3+2+3)	1:30:40.2	+16:54.3
40	37	Paul Ernst	Austria	1:25:47.9	6 (1+4+1+0)	1:31:47.9	+18:02.0
41	49	Herbert Hindelang	West Germany	1:21:48.5	10 (3+5+1+1)	1:31:48.5	+18:02.6
42	13	Aimé Gruet-Masson	France	1:20:50.4	11 (3+4+3+1)	1:31:50.4	+18:04.5
43	51	Hajime Yoshimura	Japan	1:23:05.5	9 (3+3+2+1)	1:32:05.5	+18:19.6
44	18	Alan Notley	Great Britain	1:25:23.1	7 (7+0+0+0)	1:32:23.1	+18:37.2
45	48	Edward Williams	United States	1:23:24.5	9 (2+5+0+2)	1:32:24.5	+18:38.6
46	7	Esko Karu	Canada	1:21:42.9	11 (1+3+2+5)	1:32:42.9	+18:57.0
47	55	Horst Schneider	Austria	1:24:49.6	9 (3+2+1+3)	1:33:49.6	+20:03.7
48	47	Józef Stopka	Poland	1:22:17.7	12 (4+4+3+1)	1:34:17.7	+20:31.8
49	33	Jonathan Chaffee	United States	1:23:21.1	11 (3+2+4+2)	1:34:21.1	+20:35.2
50	20	Adolf Scherwitzl	Austria	1:30:21.7	4 (2+0+1+1)	1:34:21.7	+20:35.8
51	43	George Ede	Canada	1:26:41.8	8 (2+2+4+0)	1:34:41.8	+20:55.9
52	21	Bizyaagiin Dashgai	Mongolia	1:26:55.8	8 (5+2+1+0)	1:34:55.8	+21:09.9
53	52	James Boyde	Canada	1:27:02.0	8 (3+2+2+1)	1:35:02.0	+21:16.1
54	15	George Rattai	Canada	1:24:03.0	11 (1+5+2+3)	1:35:03.0	+21:17.1
55	22	Ladislav Žižka	Czechoslovakia	1:21:45.3	14 (7+5+0+2)	1:35:45.3	+21:59.4
56	12	Franz Vetter	Austria	1:16:25.0	20 (5+5+5+5)	1:36:25.0	+22:39.1
57	59	Louis Romand	France	1:25:55.2	12 (4+2+3+3)	1:37:55.2	+24:09.3
58	36	Guy Duraffourg	France	1:23:51.4	18 (5+7+4+2)	1:41:51.4	+28:05.5
59	56	Marcus Halliday	Great Britain	1:23:40.5	19 (5+1+7+6)	1:42:40.5	+28:54.6
–	45	Józef Gąsienica-Sobczak	Poland	DNF