Lanny Barnes (Durango, Colo.) finished 23rd today in the Women's 15k Individual in Whistler Olympic Park. With clean shooting and a finish time of 43:31.8 minutes, she posted the best Olympic result of the US women's biathlon team since Joan Smith and Joan Guetschow back in Lillehammer 1994.
Sara Studebaker (Boise, Idaho) finished her race with one penalty and a time of 44:27.3 minutes in 34th place. With two penalties, Laura Spector (Lenox, Mass.) finished 0.1 seconds ahead of Haley Johnson (Lake Placid, N.Y.) for 65th place. Johnson missed four targets.
Lanny Barnes: “That was one amazing race today. I never shot clean in a race with four shooting stages, so to pull that off in an Olympic race is simply awesome. That kind of a race is super exciting as everything is possible in the Individual. I did not expect to have such a good Individual here. But I think it’s all the hard work of the whole team that’s finally paying off. We worked a lot over the last years, and we keep on moving up in the result lists. So it’s not that big of a surprise that even us girls can have a Top 25 here.”
Sara Studebaker: “That was an almost great race for me. I pulled it off with just one penalty, so that’s really good. I actually was surprised by the one miss. I still have to talk to the coaches because I have no idea where that shot went. I really thought it was a hit. Besides that, it was an amazing race. Although my skiing wasn’t the best, the course felt great and I had a lot of fun skiing with big names like the new Olympic Champion Tora Berger from Norway on the course. But it also was the most nerve wrecking race ever, as I was the first athlete to start the race. I really had to calm myself down after that. Now I am looking forward to some time to rest before the women’s relay.”
Laura Spector: “I was so exhausted today. I don’t know why to be honest, but it’s probably just the Olympics. Out there on the tracks, I just suddenly hit a wall after the second shooting and I felt so tired. I still managed to show a good shooting at the first three stages, but then I probably started thinking too much about hitting all the targets so far so I missed too at the last stage. In biathlon, you should just not think too much, that’s the key to success. But that’s a good experience and I am really looking forward to the relay now.”
Haley Johnson: “Today was an average race for me. The conditions were great, but I wasn’t able to use them as much as I wanted. Somehow the whole season isn’t working for me like I want it to be, so I guess that’s about all I can do right now. But it definitively was easier than the last races here, so I hope it stays like that for the women’s relay. I will definitively use the time till then to work a bit on both skiing and shooting.”