The 2002 Olympic tracks and Soldier Hollow shooting ranges were new territory for almost all athletes, and the experienced Kaisa Mäkäräinen was well prepared for it. She started with a controlled pace into the race at a height of about 1600 meters and gradually pushed forward. Although she was not able to fully equalize her penalty with the fastest time, she took a very good second place. Monika Hojnisz (POL, Fischer skis and bindings) secured fourth place thanks to faultless shooting performance ahead of Anastasiya Kuzmina (SVK, Fischer skis, bindings and boots). The born-Russian started extremely fast into her race and was almost ten seconds ahead of the rest after the first shooting. But already in the second lap it was visible that she has started too fast and lost significantly in the second and third lap. Kamila Zuk (POL, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) achieved sixth place with perfect shooting and by far her best World Cup result. Despite her two mistakes, Denise Herrmann (GER, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) finished seventh thanks to the second-best skiing time followed by Elisabeth Högberg (SWE, Fischer skis, bindings and boots), Yuliia Dzhima (UKR, Fischer skis, bindings and boots) and Celia Aymonier (FRA, Fischer skis, bindings and boots).
