Saturday’s blockbuster audience – the largest in the last 43 Winter Games shows (since Day 10 of the 2014 Sochi Olympics) and up 92% from the opening Saturday of the 2022 Beijing Olympics (14.8 million viewers) -- follows Friday’s Opening Ceremony, which averaged 21.4 million viewers.

During the last three Winter Olympics, biathletes had to race at night on icy snow and lighted trails, at venues that had rarely been used, since they were built just for the Games.

Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympics because of their involvement in the war in Ukraine.