The 24-year-old reigning International Biathlon Union (IBU) World Cup holder proved far too strong for the rest of the field as she produced a near-perfect performance to clinch the first gold medal in the sport at the Winter Olympic Games here.

Dahlmeier, one of the favourites coming into the event, shot clean on her way to completing the course in a time of 21min 06.2sec.

Norway's Marte Olsbu was a surprise recipient of the silver medal as she finished second, 24.2 seconds adrift of the formidable German.

Veronika Vítková of the Czech Republic did enough for the bronze medal to join Olsbu in winning her first major international individual medal.

Dahlmeier won five gold medals at last year's IBU World Championships but finally got her hands on a previously-elusive Olympic title to begin her Pyeongchang 2018 campaign in ominous fashion.

"It was not so easy because of that last year," Dahlmeier said.

"There was a lot of thinking about me and my results at the World Championships. 

"I wanted to stay focused for myself and my results. 

"Somehow I managed it.

"It is so amazing and I do not know what to say. 

"I am so happy and proud of it because it was a hard race today."

Aside from Dahlmeier, all eyes were on Slovakia's reigning Olympic champion Anastasia Kuzmina, aiming to become the first biathlete to win the same event at three different editions of the Games.

It was not to be for Kuzmina, however, as she finished in 13th place.

Dahlmeier's gold saw her become only the second German woman to triumph in an Olympic sprint event since Kati Wilhelm won at Salt Lake City 2002.

Tomorrow is due to see the men take centre stage as French star Martin Fourcade will go in search of what he hopes will be the first of several gold medals at these Games in the 10km sprint.