Biathlon: Lou Jeanmonnot in her bubble before starting her conquest of the big globe
This Friday afternoon, in sunnyOslo-Holmenkollen (Norway), the women’s sprint of the 2024/2025 Biathlon World Cup finals will be the first of three final acts in the battle between Germany’s Franziska Preuss and France’s Lou Jeanmonnot.
After eighteen races, the two biathletes are separated by 20 points, with the German in the lead. This means that the suspense is at its height, with a maximum of 270 points still to be won over the weekend. However, today’s sprint could already be decisive.
This format is doubly important as it determines the starting order of the pursuit. As a result, there is no room for misses on either side if the hope of lifting the big globe is to be maintained early on Sunday afternoon.
It is for this reason that communication is locked down on both sides, with the two champions dispensed from holding press conferences prior to the big event, scheduled to take place under the majestic eye of the Oslo ski jump.
Jean-Paul Giachino’s advice to Lou Jeanmonnot: “She has to dare”
On Saturday, from Pokljuka (Slovenia) where she had just triumphed in the mass-start, Lou Jeanmonnot told Nordic Magazine that she was eager for a fight.
“I can’t wait to be in Oslo! I’ve got lots of friends coming, and my family will be there too [they were already in Pokljuka, editor’s note]. I’m looking forward to racing there too because I’m lucky enough to still be doing really well on skis. It’s a lot easier psychologically to arrive on the piste when you know you’ve got something to fight for on skis. At the moment, I’m looking forward to it, but I know that on Thursday evening, I’ll be terrified and that it’ll have to last until Sunday”, she said with a smile.
On Thursday, on the eve of the big duel, Jean-Paul Giachino, her shooting coach, gave his advice to his protégée on La Chaîne L’Equipe: “She has to conquer it and do her biathlon, managing it, but without hesitating to be committed. She knows how to do it, she just has to dare.”
These precepts will help Lou Jeanmonnot to tame her inner demons.
- The full programme for the Oslo-Holmenkollen World Cup, the ninth and final stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Oslo-Holmenkollen World Cup: the full programme for the presentation of the crystal globes
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Oslo-Holmenkollen
- Pokljuka: Lou Jeanmonnot wins the mass-start ahead of Milena Todorova and Anamarija Lampic
- “She’s proving to herself that she can do it”: Cyril Burdet savours Lou Jeanmonnot’s new victory in Pokljuka
- Lou Jeanmonnot talks to Nordic Magazine after winning the Pokljuka mass-start: “I’m really proud to have managed to deal with my racing thoughts”.
- Lou Jeanmonnot 20 points behind Franziska Preuss: all the overall World Cup rankings after the eighth stage in Pokljuka
