Ilona Plechova wins first biathlon gold of Winter Youth Olympic Games Gangwon 2024 for Czech Republic while Frenchman Antonin Guy takes gold in close men’s event

20 January 2024 - Czech biathlete Ilona Plechacova won the first Youth Olympic gold as the biathlon events got underway at Gangwon 2024, the first ever Winter Youth Olympic
Games (YOG) in Asia.

Another 17-year-old, Antonin Guy, won a much closer men’s event to make it a successful opening day of competition for France at the Alpensia Biathlon Centre, one of many venues that staged events at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.

Plechakova had just one shooting penalty to win the women’s 10km individual by over a minute. Marie Keudel of Germany took silver and Nayeli Mariotti Cavagnet of Italy finished in bronze medal position.

In the men’s 12.5km individual event, Antonin Guy moved up from second to first on the last shooting section to take gold, while Canadian Luke Hulshof dropped out of the medals. Norway’s Storm Veitsle won silver, and bronze went to Markus Sklenarik of Slovakia.

Gangwon 2024 runs until 1 February, with more than 1,800 athletes from 78 NOCs taking part. The Winter Youth Olympic Games is filmed for live television and digital streaming on the Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the Olympics app, with full session replays and highlights also available.