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Ole Einar Bjoerndalen fails to make Norway’s Olympic team

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Olympic great Ole Einar Bjoerndalen has failed to make Norway’s biathlon team for the Pyeongchang Games, missing out on a chance to compete at his seventh Olympics.

With 13 medals, including eight gold, Bjoerndalen is the most decorated Winter Olympian in history.

Tore Ovrebo, the head of sports at the Norwegian Olympic committee, says Bjoerndalen “unfortunately” failed to meet the qualification standard.

The 44-year-old Bjoerndalen first competed at the 1994 Lillehammer Games and won his first Olympic medals four years later in Nagano.

At the 2014 Sochi Games, Bjoerndalen won gold in sprint and mixed relay.

Jamaica sending its first women’s bobsled team to Olympics

KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) — Jamaica is sending a women’s bobsled team to the Olympics for the first time.

Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian, who drove for the U.S. at the 2014 Sochi Games, will pilot the Jamaican sled in the Pyeongchang Olympics next month. It’ll likely be pushed by Carrie Russell, a sprinter who helped Jamaica win gold in the 4×100-meter relay at the 2013 world track and field championships.

Audra Segree was also picked as a brakeman for the Jamaican team.

Fenlator finished 11th with brakeman Lolo Jones for the Americans in Sochi.

There will be 20 sleds in the women’s bobsled event in Pyeongchang. These Olympics mark the 30th anniversary of Jamaica’s famed men’s bobsled debut at the Calgary Games.

360 Video: Biathletes compete in summer on roller skis

ARCON, France (AP) — Now that competition on snow in Europe is in full swing, the world’s top biathletes are in the finishing straight of their journey to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

But the groundwork was laid long ago, during summer months of intense off-season training. How hard athletes labored behind the scenes during that crucial preparation time will, in large measure, determine which of them wins medals under the Olympic spotlight in February.

Without snow, biathletes train on roller skis — racking up the miles (kilometers) to hone their fitness. They also shoot thousands of rounds — perfecting the target-shooting so essential to success in their sport where athletes need to be both supremely fit and have steady hands.

A summer biathlon championship in eastern France — with no snow but plenty of passionate fans who ignored the rain — served as a tune-up for Pyeongchang-bound athletes.

Plunge into their world of sweat and bullets with this immersive Associated Press 360-degree video that followed some of the sport’s stars hoping to shine at the 2018 games.

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More AP coverage of the Winter Games: https://wintergames.ap.org

Copyright 2018 The Associated Press.

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