Biathlon: Men's 4x7.5km Relay Recap

Here it is! The final biathlon event of the Sochi Olympics. It's also the last chance for America to get its first-ever biathlon medal, but let's be real here: that ain't happening.

Here it is! The last biathlon event of the Sochi Olympics. It's also the last chance for America to get its first-ever biathlon medal, but let's be real here: that ain't happening. What very well could happen is Norway's Ole Einar Bjøerndalen will get medal number 14, making it that much harder for anyone to ever beat his record haul.

And that's exactly how it looked for most of the race. Tarjei Boe shot clean in the first leg and put Norway into first place, which his brother Johannes Thingnes Boe kept going for the most part, despite one miss. Ole Einar Bjøerndalen had a perfect leg, and handed the lead off to anchor Emil Hegle Svendsen, who then ruined it. He had one miss in the first shoot and four in the second, forcing him to take a penalty lap and taking Norway out of contention.

Ole Einar Bjøerndalen, skiing in what is most likely his last Olympics. (AP)

Russia and Germany then fought for the win, but Germany's Simon Schempp couldn't keep up with Russia's Anton Shipulin, who coasted across the finish line

The final medal tally, via Google. Not present? USA.

with the hometown crowd cheering him on. It's an especially impressive victory considering that Germany only missed two targets and Russia missed eight. Germany took the silver 3.5 seconds later and Austria got the bronze 30 seconds after that. Norway was almost a minute behind.

And America. Well, Lowell Bailey did very well, missing nothing and finishing the first leg in fourth place. Russell Currier went next and proceeded to miss three targets, despite having three extra bullets. And this was in the prone position, which is considered to be easier than standing.

"I got into a good start and I was on pace for something good, but I really couldn't keep it together for prone, which hurt our chances," Currier told Team USA.

America never recovered and finished in 16th place. That said, at least we finished! Estonia, Kazakhstan and Poland got lapped and were pulled from the race.

Complete standings can be found at Sochi's official site and more stats and analyses can be found at Real Biathlon. 

(AP)