Biathlon | “I ask myself a lot of questions, I think about everything all the time…” : for Lou Jeanmonnot, the hunt for the crystal globe is above all a mental battle

Biathlon: only four races to go for Lou Jeanmonnot

Since the beginning of March, Lou Jeanmonnot has been engaged in a merciless race for the big crystal globe as winner of the 2024/2025 World Cup. Facing Germany’s Franziska Preuss, the Doubiste native is leading a duel that has the world’s biathlon caravan on tenterhooks.

Separated by 92 points before Nove Mesto (Czech Republic), to the German’s advantage, the two contenders were only 36 points apart at the end of the Czech races. The momentum was then in favour of the native of Pontarlier (Doubs).

Except that two days ago,Franziska Preuss made up some ground on the individual short in Pokljuka (Slovenia) to take a 60-point lead with four races to go.

I’m disappointed with the result,” Lou Jeanmonnot told La Chaîne L’ Equipe after finishing seventh. I’ve been fighting against myself since the start of this last period of competition. It’s a psychological battle […]. My worst enemy is myself.

Stress, an important element to manage

Speaking afterwards to Nordic Magazine, the Franc-Comtoise commented: “Emotionally, everything is extremely strong. I feel a bit like crying all the time just to say how difficult it is. It’s another level of biathlon. I know how to do traditional biathlon, the kind that just requires you to ski fast and shoot well, and I’m learning the kind that requires you to fight against yourself, to block out negative thoughts, stress and pressure. It’s very hard, especially when you’re standing on the shooting range! That’s where my emotions come out the most.

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Stress is something that Lou Jeanmonnot has to learn to manage. ” It can manifest itself in 15 billion different ways,” she points out. Before the chase in Nove Mesto, it was over-excitement , whereas the opposite happened in the hours leading up to the individual short in Pokljuka.

I got up and was yawning all the time, I was all limp,” she says. Each time, I have to find a different way of dealing with the stress in the best possible way.

“Anything can happen in four races! I’m not going to give anything up”.

So the decision is likely to be made more in the mind than on technical and rational points.

“I ask myself a lot of questions, I go over everything all the time… It’s really something I’m discovering. I’ve never experienced anything like it! It’s cool and I appreciate it because it’s what I’ve always wanted, to fight for it, but it takes a lot of juice,” laughs Lou Jeanmonnot. Anything can happen in four races! I’m not going to give anything up. I’m looking forward to the head-to-head races because there’s a lot more adrenalin and excitement.

Just the thing, this Saturday from 3.45pm, there will be a mass-start on the Slovenian site of Pokljuka.

_{[With Julie and Marie Le Bobinnec, in Pokljuka].}

• The full programme for the Pokljuka World Cup, the eighth stage of the 2024/2025 season
• Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Pokljuka
• Lou Jeanmonnot vs Franziska Preuss and Johannes Thingnes Boe vs Sturla Holm Lægreid: in Pokljuka, a high-risk individual race in the race for the big crystal globe
• Pokljuka: Julia Simon follows up her victory by winning the individual short at 20/20, all the French women in the top 10
• Julia Simon tells Nordic Magazine after her success in the Pokljuka individual short: “I’m very happy to have built up this race in such a beautiful way”.
• Pokljuka: Lou Jeanmonnot wins the small crystal globe in the individual event, a first for a Frenchwoman
• Pokljuka: third in the individual short, Franziska Preuss claws back points from Lou Jeanmonnot in the race for the big globe
• “I’m not going to give up”: Lou Jeanmonnot tells Nordic Magazine after the individual short in Pokljuka
• Pokljuka: Océane Michelon takes command of the U23 rankings and will be wearing blue for the mass-start
• Océane Michelon, fifth in the Pokljuka individual short: “I’m copying and pasting from Kontiolahti”.
• Pokljuka: Jakov Fak wins the individual short on home soil, his first success since… 22 March 2015, Quentin Fillon-Maillet with the flowers
• “I’d love to grow old like him”, “I don’t have enough words to describe it”: Emilien Jacquelin and Eric Perrot impressed by Jakov Fak’s victory in Pokljuka at the age of 37
• Pokljuka: Sturla Holm Lægreid takes over the overall lead from Johannes Thingnes Boe after the individual short race
• Pokljuka: the small individual crystal globe for Sturla Holm Lægreid, as in 2021
• Pokljuka: reactions from Quentin Fillon-Maillet, Eric Perrot, Emilien Jacquelin, Oscar Lombardot, Emilien Claude and Fabien Claude after the individual short race
• Surprise for the French team: Antonin Guigonnat will start the mass start in Pokljuka
• Johannes Thingnes Boe withdraws for the end of the Pokljuka stage
• Pokljuka: no mass-start for Dorothea Wierer either

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