Biathlete Lowell Bailey won the men’s 20-kilometer race at the IBU World Championships in Hochfilzen, Austria, on Thursday, the first for the United States in the sport.
Biathlon was the only Winter Olympics sport in which the USA had not won an Olympic or world title, a drought that dated back to 1958 for world titles and 1960 for the Olympics.
Bailey, a three-time Olympian from Lake Placid, hit all 20 targets to finish in 48:07.4, beating out the Czech Republic’s Ondrej Moravec by 3.3 seconds.
Bailey’s worlds medal is only the third for the U.