| The biathlon competitions in Torino 2006 were held in the terrain near Cesana San Sicario about 100 km from Torino and at an altitude of 1600 m. There were 10 events in the programme - 5 for both men and women. This was two more events than at the previous games in Salt Lake City, namely the mass start events of 15 km for the men and 12,5 for the women.
The biathlon competitions became a huge success for the German team winning half of the ten gold medals. In addition the Germans claimed four silver and two bronze medals. This also meant that biathlon was one of the sports that had a big impact on Germany becoming the strongest nation at the Torino games in the total medal standings. In the biathlon events Russia and France both took two gold medals and Sweden one.
The Norwegian legend, Ole Einar Bjørndalen, was the big name in Salt Lake City in the 2002 olympics where he dominated the sport by winning all four events in the men's competitions. It was expected that he would once again be the leading athlete but in Torino things changed. Bjørndalen had difficulties finding his top level and in general had problems with his shooting and the fast Norwegian "only" returned from Torino with to silver medals and a bronze.
Instead Germany's Michael Greis was the dominating biathlete in Torino. Greis won three gold medals - two individual in the 20 km and the 15 km mass start and the third as anchor man in the German relay team on the 4x7,5 km. Another German biathlete, Sven Fischer, took two gold medals in the men's events with victories in the 10 km and the relay.
In the women's events Svetlana Ishmuratova became a double gold winner by winning the 15 km and by running the second leg for Russia's gold winning team in the 4x6 km relay. Germany's Kati Wilhelm won one gold and two silver medals and Sweden's Anna-Carin Olofsson took one gold and one silver.
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Future Olympics 
