France's Martin Fourcade, German biathlon relay team receive gold medals in reallocation ceremony

ANTERSELVA, Italy (AP) — Sixteen years after finishing the biathlon 15-kilometer mass start race at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, Martin Fourcade was awarded his gold medal for the race on Sunday, while Slovak biathlete Pavol Hurajt received his silver and the bronze was given to Christoph Sumann of Austria during a medal reallocation ceremony at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena at the Milan Cortina Winter Games.

And 12 years after competing in the 2014 Sochi Games, the German relay team of Erik Lesser, Daniel Boehm, Arnd Peiffer and Simon Schempp received their gold medals. The Austria team of Sumann, Daniel Mesotitsch, Simon Eder and Dominik Landertinger were awarded silver.

The bronze went to the Norwegian relay team of Tarjei Boe, Johannes Thingnes Boe, Ole Einar Bjorndalen and Emil Hegle Svendsen.

Athletes from the 2010 Vancouver Games and the 2014 Sochi Olympics received new medals after all Russian biathlete Evgeny Ustyugov's competitive results were disqualified from 2010 to 2014, “due to anti-doping rule violations based on abnormalities in his Athlete Biological Passport and evidence from the Moscow Laboratory Information Management System,” the International Biathlon Union said in a news release.

The ceremony took place between the men’s and women’s pursuit races in front of a crowd of about 20,000 fans.

Fourcade said he was thrilled to be back in Anterselva to receive a long-overdue medal.

“It was my first podium at the time, my first medal, and it already felt like gold," he said. “Today, being able to celebrate it, both in an Olympic atmosphere and in one of the most iconic biathlon venues is also a special thing, considering the message this medal sends for the fight for clean sport, for justice being done, even if sometimes it takes too long.”

Germany's Peiffer, after receiving his gold, said it was a great feeling to be back with the team.

“We had great times together, and now finally, we are back on the podium,” he said. “It’s kind of weird because it’s a long time since we have been on a podium together. We are very grateful that we got the gold medal now, and I think we deserved it, because we were the best clean team on that day.”

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AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics