Biathlon: showman Emilien Jacquelin strikes again
Emilien Jacquelin is a showman. The boy from Villard-de-Lans (Isère) is indeed the type to break codes in the polite world of biathlon. A crazy marksman in his younger days, which made him famous one fine day in February 2021 during the pursuit at the World Championships in Pokljuka (Slovenia), he has finally managed to settle down in recent months.
A state of mind, among other things, which enabled him to find his way back to victory this Friday in the World Cup sprint in Kontiolahti (Finland). However, as Emilien Jacquelin himself likes to say, nature takes its course. So, like any self-respecting star, he doesn’t hesitate to celebrate in original ways.
Last Sunday, at the finish of the relay won by the French team, Emilien Jacquelin celebrated his success with a “Night Night”, the signature celebration of basketball player Stephen Curry. For the sprint, his first victory for nearly three years, he put a finger to his mouth before pointing it at the camera after crossing the finish line with a sense of achievement.
One celebration, several explanations
“So many people doubted me, it was a sort of light trash-talk: ‘Keep talking, I don’t care, I’m doing my thing’,” explained the Dauphinois to IBU.
With a (more) clear head, following his doping test, his version differed when he was interviewed on the subject by Nordic Magazine: “There’s not necessarily any trash-talk. Now, I do things for me, the way I want to do them, and sometimes there are people who may doubt [me],” he said.
And he went on to explain the other reason for this remarkable gesture: “It was also a little private joke with a friend who had given me his top 3 of the day… and I wasn’t in it! Serves him right,” he laughed.
Beware of the next friend who tells Emilien Jacquelin that he won’t shine in his next race.
- The full programme for the Kontiolahti World Cup, the first stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Kontiolahti
- Top 3 nations cup target for France: the hunt for Olympic quotas for Milan/Cortina 2026, the other key issue of the 2024/2025 season
- World Cup overall leaders celebrated: this season, the IBU is introducing a yellow bib award ceremony
- World Cup: IBU logo replaces start number on distinctive bibs
- After the opening relays, what is the programme for the second week of the Kontiolahti World Cup?
- Kontiolahti: where does Emilien Jacquelin’s “Night Night” celebration at the relay finish line come from?
- “I can’t wait to see how he performs”, “He’s progressed, he deserves it”: Emilien Claude’s return to the World Cup is a source of great joy to those close to him, Anna Gandler and Fabien Claude.
- “It’s time for me to come into my own and become the biathlete I was a few years ago”: Fabien Claude, the winter of affirmation at last?
- Kontiolahti: Endre Stroemsheim, at 20/20, beats Johannes Thingnes Boe in the individual short, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Eric Perrot with the flowers
- Kontiolahti: for the first time in his career, Endre Stroemsheim will don the yellow World Cup leader’s bib
- “My best race ever”: Endre Stroemsheim and the Norwegians put everyone in agreement at Kontiolahti
- “With a full house, we could have been ahead…”: satisfaction, but also frustration for Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Eric Perrot, in the top 6 of the individual short in Kontiolahti.
- Ukraine’s Vitalii Mandzyn, sensation of the individual short with his fourth place: “I hope this is just the beginning”.
- “A dream come true”: ninth in the individual short in Kontiolahti, Thierry Langer scored his first World Cup top 10 finish
- “It’s performances and results that count”: in Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen, the seven girls in the French team are fighting to take part in the Grand-Bornand World Cup.
- Lou Jeanmonnot is about to embark on the season of all possibilities: “Playing the globe honestly, trying to keep a jersey and manage the pressure”.
- Kontiolahti: Julia Simon undergoes an MRI scan early this afternoon
- Kontiolahti: still uncertain about Julia Simon’s state of health on the eve of the individual short race
- Kontiolahti: despite injuring her left calf on the relay last Sunday, Julia Simon is taking part in the individual short race.
- Kontiolahti: on cloud nine with a 20/20, Lou Jeanmonnot dominates the individual short and gets her season off to an ideal start
- Kontiolahti: after wearing it for the first time in Hochfilzen in December 2023, Lou Jeanmonnot takes the yellow bib once again
- Kontiolahti: in Saturday’s sprint, Océane Michelon will become the first Frenchwoman to wear the blue number
- Lou Jeanmonnot’s satisfaction after her success in the Kontiolahti individual short: “I’m relieved to see that I’m not out of my depth”.
- “I didn’t feel any pain”: despite a modest 31st place in the Kontiolahti individual short, Julia Simon was reassuring about her left calf.
- “Beyond anything I could have imagined”: Ella Halvarsson, tears over her first World Cup podium in the individual short in Kontiolahti
- “I still can’t believe it”: the joy of Poland’s Natalia Sidorowicz, fourth in the individual short at Kontiolahti
- Frozen fingers, rifle problems, 92nd at the finish: Anamarija Lampic had one problem after another in the individual short at Kontiolahti.
- “It’s good for my head”: Anna Gandler explains why she does juggling sessions before her World Cup races
- Kontiolahti: Emilien Jacquelin, with a 10/10, takes the sprint and wins the World Cup for the first time in almost three years
- Kontiolahti: Emilien Jacquelin takes the red sprint bib, Johannes Thingnes Boe in yellow
- “There’s nothing exceptional about it”: after his magnificent success in the Kontiolahti sprint, Emilien Jacquelin is not getting carried away.
- Emilien Jacquelin tells Nordic Magazine after his resounding victory in the Kontiolahti sprint: “On the podium, I saw myself again three years ago in Le Grand-Bornand…”.
- “I had tears in my eyes”: Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was marked by Emilien Jacquelin’s return to favour
- “It did me good to get away from group A”: Antonin Guigonnat returned to the World Cup top 10 in the Kontiolahti sprint
