Sebastian Samuelsson was the best Swede in 18th place. Martin Ponsiluoma was 21st and Jesper Nelin 26th out of 30 competitors.
The bad skis also made it difficult on the shooting range.
"It's just laughable. When you feel like you don't have the stuff, it would have taken 25 hits to beat Dale today," said Martin Ponsiluoma about the Norwegian winner Johannes Dale-Skjevdal.
"It was so damn unmotivating, it was just about getting through the race."
“Mentally draining”
Nelin called it "mentally draining" to have bad skis.
"I'm really tired in the head when I get on the range and then I can't keep it together," he said after shooting seven shots.
Nelin said that the service staff came up to the competitors immediately after the finish to apologize.
"This kind of thing happens to all nations at some point and we have a very good development team. It's just not going well right now," he said.
National team coach Johannes Lukas said that he was also there when the skis were tested in the morning.
"It was a very special time, but today we didn't have the best equipment," Lukas said.
"It's just a matter of trying to find everything and doing everything we can to solve the problem by tomorrow (the women's mass start). What I think is a good sign is that the development team went out straight away and conducted retests. They are doing everything they can to find the problem so we can fight back tomorrow."
Continuing to the 2030 Olympics
Jesper Nelin is the oldest on the team, 33 years old, and said that before the Olympics he "never thought in my life that it would be four more years."
But...
"I would like to get revenge for this, for sure. I'm not completely locked in or out of it now," he said.
Martin Ponsiluoma is 30 years old and also believes he will be in the Olympics in France in 2030.
"Hanna (Öberg, my partner) says I have to defend my Olympic gold," he said about the pursuit gold in Antholz.
28-year-old Sebastian Samuelsson is also aiming for four more years.
Johannes Dale-Skjevdal, the last man to enter the Norwegian mass start team, won the race ahead of Sturla Holm Lægreid, who has won medals in all five Olympic races (three silver, two bronze). The Frenchman Quentin Fillon-Maillet took bronze.
Corrected: Sebastian Samuelsson's age was previously stated incorrectly. The correct age is 28 years.
