The Men's 20 kilometre individual biathlon competition at the 1960 Winter Olympics was held on 21 February, at McKinney Creek Stadium.

[1][2] Klas Lestander became the first Olympic biathlon champion on the back of a perfect shooting performance, the only one of the event.

The victory came despite Lestander's ski time, which was only 15th, right in the middle of the 30-man field.

The defending world champion, Vladimir Melanin, had the third fastest ski time, but eight minutes in penalties left him fourth.

However, both struggled on the range, Mercier missing 15 of 20 shots to incur a half-hour in penalties, and Abrez 18 of 20 to add 36 minutes to his time.