The competition should actually have been run now on Saturday, but since it will be -15 degrees and colder, at the same time as the wind is expected to increase, the mass start will be moved to Friday.
The International Biathlon Federation refers in a press release to, among other things, the cooling effect of the wind.
New start time will be at 8 Swedish time (15 local time) on Friday.
Two hours later, the men's mass start will be decided as planned.
Only 30 skiers are allowed to drive each mass start.
On the women's side, Elvira Öberg, Hanna Öberg, Mona Brorsson and Linn Persson are guaranteed a starting place - that is, the same quartet that took Olympic gold in the relay on Wednesday.
Anna Magnusson is one of the reserves.
On the men's side, for Sweden's only Sebastian Samuelsson and Martin Ponsiluoma are qualified among the 30 who can start.
FROM YESTERDAY: Historical Olympic gold to Sweden - won the ladies' relay
Javascript is disabled
Javascript must be turned on to play video
Read more about browser support
The browser is not supported
SVT does not support playback in your browser.
We therefore recommend that you switch to a different browser.
Read more about browser support
Historic Olympic gold to Sweden - won the ladies' relay