After skiing 10km, punctuated with two shooting sessions, the 40-year-old Norwegian became the oldest Winter Games gold medallist and matched compatriot Bjorn Daehlie's medals mark.
Bjoerndalen now has seven golds to his name, trailing eight-time Olympic cross-country skiing champion Daehlie only on 'golds difference'.
"I did everything the way I should today," Bjoerndalen, whose previous individual victory came in a pursuit on Feb. 12, 2012, told Norway's TV2.
"It was a perfectly paced race. I did things the way I know best."
He missed one of 10 targets but shot fast and skied flawlessly to beat Austrian Dominik Landertinger, who took silver, by 1.3 seconds.
Bronze medalist Jaroslav Soukup of the Czech Republic finished 5.7 seconds off the pace.
Pre-race favorites Martin Fourcade of France and Norwegian Emil Hegle Svendsen were sixth and ninth.
Russian Anton Shipulin ended a frustrating fourth, 0.7 seconds from the podium as the host nation were left still waiting for their first medal of the Games.
It was clear early on that Bjoerndalen was back to his best.
A perfect prone shooting session put him in good position and despite a mistake in the standing shooting, Bjoerndalen used perfectly-prepared skis to make up for lost time.
Missing a shot in the sprint event means the biathlete incurs a 150 metre penalty lap, roughly equal to 20-25 seconds.
Overall World Cup leader Fourcade underlined the importance of the skis.
"There are a lot of things to analyze," he told reporters. "The speed on the skis, for example."
Motivation not a problem
It was Bjoerndalen's third sprint Olympic title after his 1998 and 2002 triumphs.
He failed to win a title in Turin in 2006 and snatched gold four years ago in Vancouver in the relay event, but never lost faith he could be at the very top again.
"There were some problems for some years but motivation was never a problem," the softly-spoken Bjoerndalen told a news conference.
"This medal means a lot to me. It's one of the most important."
Bjoerndalen now looks set to beat Daehlie's medals haul as he will take part in a relay event Norway will start as one of the favorites.
Daehlie told Norway's TV2 Bjoerndalen had surprised his opponents.
"I'm deeply impressed," he said. "He's 40 and he's the fastest skier ... I don't think his competitors had expected that."
Fourcade said: "Last year, everybody talked about him and that he needed to retire.
"But I was one of the ones who trusted him and I always told him that he had to follow his own way. Today he shut the mouths of all the people who were speaking about him."
With 51 podium places he has more Olympic and world championships medals than birthdays. He will start Monday's pursuit in first position as he carries Saturday's time advantages into the 12.5 km race. - Reuters
source: gmanetwork.com
