The biathlon men's 15km mass start was decided by a photo finish after a premature celebration from Norway's Emil Hegle Svendsen nearly resulted in one of the biggest blunders in Olympic history.

Svendsen was a few yards ahead of France's Martin Fourcade down the stretch of the 40-minute race. Right before he crossed the finish line, though, Svendsen held his hands above his head in celebration, allowing Fourcade to nearly lunge ahead of him.

They finished with identical times of 42 minutes, 29.1 seconds. But Svendsen won gold after the photo finish showed he finished first by a few feet.

He was SO close to blowing it.

Here's the finish. Svendsen is in blue:

Unreal:

Here's the premature pose:

BBC

He's a few inches ahead on the photo finish: