Bulgarian Milena Todorova recorded an impressive performance in the 7.5-kilometer sprint at the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, BTA reports. The 28-year-old biathlete finished in fourth place with a time of 21:20.8 minutes, making only one mistake in her first shooting at the Antholz-Anterselva complex.
Todorova fell 16.3 seconds short of the podium, but achieved her best ranking at a Winter Olympics. Her previous best finish was 17th in the same event at the 2022 Winter Olympics. With her fourth place, she also tied the best Bulgarian finish in the Olympic sprint, set by Nadezhda Alexieva at the 1992 Winter Olympics. 22-year-old Lora Hristova, a bronze medalist in the 15 km individual start, also missed a time from the prone position and finished 11th with a time of 21:54.1 minutes. Thus, Todorova and Hristova secured their participation in the 10 km pursuit on Sunday, where they will start among the top 60 with good positions to attack the top places.
Valentina Dimitrova and Maria Zdravkova did not find a place among the top 80 and are ending their individual participation at the Games. The start in the 4 x 6 km relay on February 18 remains for them. Zdravkova finished 83rd with 24:44.2 minutes (6 out of 10 targets down), and Dimitrova was 85th with 24:56.1 after three shooting faults.
The Olympic champion was 22-year-old Maren Kirkeide (Norway), who triumphed with a clean shooting with a time of 20:40.8 minutes - the greatest success in her career. The silver was won by 23-year-old Oceane Michelon with 3.8 seconds, also with a perfect shooting. The bronze went to Lou Jeanmono (France), who remained 23.7 seconds behind with one fault from the standing position and formed a complete set of medals from Milano-Cortina after the gold in the mixed relay and the silver in the individual discipline.
Immediately after her was Milena Todorova, who overtook the Italian Lisa Vitozzi by six tenths of a second. Hristova will start the pursuit 1:13.3 minutes behind Kirkeide.