(NEWS CENTER Maine) — The U.S. women's biathlon team finished 13th Thursday in the women's 4x6km relay.
There was hope that the team might medal through three-quarters of the race.
Lead Susan Dunklee skied the first leg for the U.S. She finished 7.6 seconds off the pace. She needed an extra round to knock down all the targets from the standing position. That means she had to load a single bullet into her rifle and fire again. That takes an average of seven seconds.
Next was Egan who is from Cape Elizabeth, Maine, and is Wellesley College's first Olympic athlete. She started her leg in third place. She lost 13 seconds in the first 2 km to fall into fourth place.
However, she hit all five targets from the prone position to leave the range back in third place, 17 seconds behind the leader.
She lost 22 seconds over the next 2 km. She shot cleanly from the standing position in 1 minute and 15 seconds. This moved her within 11 seconds of the lead.
Over the last 2 km, she gave up 5 seconds leaving the U. S. in medal contention.
Joanne Firesteel Reid missed four targets, but lost only 5 seconds to the leader handing off 22 seconds behind.
Anchor Emily Dreissigacker slowly fell off the pace while missing five times. The Americans finished in 13th place, 2 minutes behind the winners from Belarus.
Sweden took the silver and France picked up the bronze.
The biathlon events wrap up Friday with the men's 4x7.5km relay.
