Biathlon: Lou Jeanmonnot crowned individual queen
At the start of the week, when debriefing the Biathlon World Cup in Oberhof (Germany) for Nordic Magazine, Gilles Marguet from Doubt, world champion in the relay in 2001, said that Lou Jeanmonnot was “the boss of the circuit” and “a war machine”.
“When she’s at her best, she’s unbeatable! Over the course of a season, she’s the boss. She’s going to have to deal with the emotions, but she needs to live and understand these moments. Right now, she’s recording information on her hard drive and she’ll be able to pull it out when she needs to, he analysed afterwards. In biathlon, the only ones who go all the way are those who accept losing in order to progress. Lou [Jeanmonnot] is of that calibre. The day she gets the full package, she’ll just be unplayable and good luck to the others!”
An unstoppable shot at 20/20
On Thursday afternoon, during the individual event in Ruhpolding (Germany), the biathlete from the Franc-Comtois region of Burgundy demonstrated this in front of her parents. Wearing the red leader’s bib following her success in Kontiolahti (Finland) at the start of the winter, the Olympic Mont d’Or biathlete posted a 20/20 on the mats.
Regaining the confidence she lost at the end of December behind the rifle and managing the pressure of the distinctive jersey, Lou Jeanmonnot combined this magnificent performance with the third fastest time in cross-country skiing.
Untouchable, the Doubiste rider won for the fourth time this season, adding a second individual victory in a row just a few days after her success in the Oberhof pursuit. As a result, Lou Jeanmonnot continues to pick up points overall in the Franziska Preuss (19/20). Second on the day in front of her home crowd, 35.7 seconds behind her rival, the German wearing the yellow bib still has a 101-length lead over the Frenchwoman.
First podium for Amy Baserga, more flowers for Océane Michelon
On the third step of the day’s podium, we find an unprecedented leader in the shape of Switzerland’s Amy Baserga. The 20/20 marks her first individual World Cup podium at the age of 24, 43 sec 1 behind today’s winner.
Baujue’s Océane Michelon (19/20) followed up her third flower ceremony in a row by finishing fourth at 1 min 17, while Sweden’s Johanna Skottheim (20/20), fifth at 1 min 24, rose from the ashes.
The top 6 was closed by Austria’s Anna Gandler (19/20). The day after her partner Emilien Claude‘s podium finish, she put in her best race of the season after suffering a number of physical problems in recent weeks.
Among the other French girls, Jeanne Richard (18/20) was fifteenth, Julia Simon (17/20) twenty-first, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (16/20) thirty-second and Paula Botet (16/20) forty-sixth.
𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗦𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗘 ✨
With the red jersey on his back, Lou Jeanmonnot showed all his ease behind the rifle to win the Ruhpolding Individual 🥇
New 20/20 on the shooting range 💯👊
📸 Nordic Focus pic.twitter.com/FzCkhW37vX– FFS – Fédération Française de Ski (@FedFranceSki) January 16, 2025
Full results
- The full programme for the Ruhpolding World Cup, the fifth stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Ruhpolding
- Same old, same old: the French selection for the Ruhpolding World Cup
- Ruhpolding: first World Cup podium for Emilien Claude, second in the individual race won by Vebjoern Soerum
- Emilien Claude on his first World Cup podium in Ruhpolding: “I don’t feel that my life is changing, but that hard work is paying off after four complicated years”.
- “I cried”: how Anna Gandler, his partner in the Austrian biathlon team, felt about Emilien Claude’s first World Cup podium finish.
- “It’s a real nightmare”: 85th in Ruhpolding, Johannes Thingnes Boe put in the worst World Cup performance of his career
