| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
Japanese apologize for pointing rifle
The Japanese Olympic Committee hand-delivered a letter Wednesday to the Department of Public Safety apologizing for an incident in which a cross county coach inadvertently pointed a biathlon rifle at police.
Through an interpreter, coach Kazunari Sasaki said he was in a room at the High Country Inn with two biathlon coaches from the Japanese team Monday about 11 p.m. Sasaki said he had never handled a gun before and asked the coaches if he could handle the rifle. As Sasaki was holding the rifle he pointed it to a window to see his own reflection. Because it was dark outside, he did not see outside the window.
Two police officers saw the gun pointing in their direction from a room directly across from theirs. Unfamiliar with gun etiquette, Sasaki was still holding the gun when he turned around to face officers when they entered the room. The officers asked him not to point the gun at them and asked the men to close the curtains in the room to avoid startling anyone else.
In their letter to the Department of Public Safety the JOC commended the officers for the "great restraint they exhibited in this manner."
The letter also stated the coaches had been forbidden from handling biathlon firearms and that the JOC is instituting a policy prohibiting nonbiathlon coaches and athletes from handling the rifles without prior permission.
"I didn't know anything about the gun etiquette," Sasaki said through an interpreter. "I heard afterwards that if I pointed a gun at the police officers they could have shot. I'm so glad that they didn't."
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February 21, 2002
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