Biathlon: Frédéric Jean’s view of the Hochfilzen World Cup races
Throughout the winter, a retired French biathlete will be giving Nordic Magazine his thoughts on the season’s various competitions. Frédéric Jean, former biathlete and coach of Les Bleues, will be taking a look back at the World Cup races in Hochfilzen (Sweden).
Eric Perrot’s masterly victory in the pursuit
“For me, he won the pursuit with one of the most monstrous races I’ve ever seen in biathlon. For me, it’s a benchmark race. Physically, he was very good. He shot 20/20, but not in just any way! I was impressed by the quality of his shooting, with twenty bullets in the recumbent. I was also impressed by his intelligent running. He’s got the science of the race: he can manage and master the different scenarios while still being in the thick of the action. He was really very strong!
A first victory this winter for Lou Jeanmonnot, despite the aftermath of the affair
“She’s very touched by what’s happening internally with the return of Julia [Simon], but at some point, we’re here to do top-level sport. We’re not here to do a show on NRJ12! Julia [Simon] did some shit (sic), got a suspension and served it. She’s back doing the biathlon, and I want to concentrate on the sport. It’s a bit like Lou [Jeanmonnot]’s fall in Oslo: if she wants to win the overall – and we all do – we have to move on!
“To come back to Lou [Jeanmonnot]’s season, you can feel that this story is affecting her because she is very close to Justine [Braisaz-Bouchet], who is being criticised. Despite that, she set the record straight in the sprint, and in style! On her feet, you can see that she’s in trouble, but she recovers by being extremely intelligent. She folded the race, and that’s one of the highlights of the week.
“At the start of the week, she said that she was too focused on the result in Östersund and that she had forgotten to put in the effort. That’s something she put aside in the sprint, but I wonder if it didn’t come back in the last shot of the pursuit, where she’s playing for the win and the podium. Perhaps she fell back into that trap and committed the double fault that she almost never does. She wanted to arrive in Grand-Bornand in yellow, and that won’t be the case. But she’s very strong and she’s someone who learns from her mistakes, so I’m not worried about her. She’ll bounce back! She’ll bounce back!
The “permanent danger” Tommaso Giacomel
“I’d like to say that it’s going to be a constant danger! It’s like a bottle of wine: we put it in the cellar a few years ago, it was already a good bottle, and now his coach has taken it out of the cellar to drink it at Christmas [laughs]. Tommaso Giacomel isn’t a six-week-old rabbit! He’s kept his eyes and ears open during all the years he’s spent in the World Cup. We’ve been talking about him for a long time as a contender for the overall, but Johannes [Thingnes Boe] was there to take it all down.
“What I like about him and Eric [Perrot] is that they’re young people who aren’t afraid to say they’re playing in the general. I really like that.
Julia Simon’s big return to competition
“What’s interesting is that she hasn’t lost her shooting ability, even when she’s been on her own in recent weeks. She’s one of those athletes who shoots fast and can put the ball deep. She hasn’t lost any of that, that’s for sure. However, she’s lacking some to clear all the targets, but that’s normal because she’s lacking some physically. She needs to find herself again, and she’s going to find herself with the number on her back: there’s no substitute for that!
“To sum up, I thought she was right on time. We shouldn’t have expected her to win! As the races go by, she’ll clean out her machine and regain her physical sensations, which will indirectly help her to regain her sensations behind the rifle.
The right attitude from Emilien Jacquelin
“I found him to be really, really good during the week in Hochfilzen, with his race management and a monstrous level of fitness. There was him, Johan-Olav Botn and the others! I also liked his attitude, even when he missed three standing balls in the sprint. Mistakes are part of the game and he didn’t do anything foolish by not letting go. Last year, if he’d made those mistakes, he’d have been 48th in the final round of the sprint and would have finished 24th. This time, he didn’t give up and fought right to the end.
“We haven’t always said that he has the fighting spirit to show at biathlon schools… This week, he was a showman, as usual, but also true to himself, producing the biathlon he loves.
Camille Bened, shooting metronome
“Her strength is that she has a level of shooting that borders on the exceptional. She’s not just consistent, she’s almost perfectly consistent. That’s what saves her and, deep down, she knows it. If she wants to exist at this level, she has no choice but to shoot like this.
“A Camille [Bened] at 8/10 in a sprint, I think she’s 35th, and between 15th and 20th place with a 9/10. On Sunday, in the pursuit, she set the 45th fastest time on skis and came out 20/20 to finish sixth. That perfectly sums up what you need to do in biathlon to perform well: shoot well! She has a monstrous level of shooting, but she’s still lacking a little physically. It’s her level of shooting that allows her to play up front. I’m sure she knows that and she’s banking on it, playing to her strengths.
The boss Johan-Olav Botn
“Two years ago, he won more than ten races in the IBU Cup, but he was doomed by the Norwegian competition. Last winter, he suffered the effects of the work he’d put in and didn’t look as dashing as before. He took a step back and concentrated on his shooting. What he’s doing right now, especially in shooting where he’s 96%, is science fiction! He’s really impressive, so watch out for him in the general standings.
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet has launched her winter (at last)
“She launched her season with a fourth place in the pursuit. I was almost moved, because she’s picked up a lot over the last few months… There was some gratuitous malice towards her, and that’s not easy to live with. In the end, she bounced back just when she could have been in danger of being selected for Le Grand-Bornand. She had to quit.
“She shot standing shots where she let herself go completely, shooting quickly for a 10/10. There’s still a little bit of restraint on the floor, but that gives her an 18/20, and we’re signing up for that with both hands! It’s great to see Justine [Braisaz-Bouchet] back like this.
Quentin Fillon-Maillet’s physical breakdown
“He was in a week where he wasn’t physically well. He fought as hard as he could and it was far from catastrophic. Now he’s going to get back on track and we’re going to meet up with Quentin [Fillon-Maillet] in Grand-Bornand, on a stage that he loves. His family will be there and he’ll want to do the biathlon we know he can do. You’re entitled to have physical slumps.
Lisa Vittozzi, the boss back at the top
“It’s great because she started from a long way back in this pursuit, with bib number 14. Now she’s got 20/20 and almost the perfect race. She was phenomenal. It’s interesting to see her at this level. It should encourage her to make the intelligent decision last year to deal with her health problems rather than return to the race circuit to do things by halves. When you’ve won the overall in the World Cup and you get injured, you don’t want to come back and just be a figurehead.
“A Julia [Simon] can take inspiration from this course: she got back into the swing of things in Östersund, then won as early as Hochfilzen.
Anna Magnusson, solid in yellow
“She’s amazingly consistent! Back when I was coach, she won the sprint at Le Grand-Bornand, and it always means a lot to win a race in this format. It’s the trademark of the greatest. I knew she was capable of going fast and being dangerous, but I wouldn’t have said she’d have the yellow number on her back! Now she’s arriving in Grand-Bornand, where she’s already won, with the yellow bib. In terms of confidence, she’s not bad!
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- Caroline Colombo: my best memory of… Östersund
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