Biathlon: Lou Jeanmonnot vs Franziska Preuss, a legendary duel for the big globe
At the end of last week, Germany’s Franziska Preuss and Doubt’s Lou Jeanmonnot fought out an intense battle in the biathlon world cup finals in Oslo-Holmenkollen (Norway). An epic duel with a prestigious prize at stake: the crystal globe for the overall winner.
In the last race of the winter, the mass-start, the two contenders engaged in a final battle of rare intensity. The battle was aborted 500 metres from the line when Lou Jeanmonnot fell. Sandrine Bailly, winner of the big globe in 2005, talks to Nordic Magazine about this duel, which has already gone down in biathlon history.
A fantastic battle between Lou Jeanmonnot and Franziska Preuss right up to the final hectometres of winter
“They offered biathlon at such a high level that every possible scenario was cruel for one or the other. The scenario that finally unfolded is therefore cruel and has a taste of unfinished business, but we tell ourselves that if Lou [Jeanmonnot] had won, it would have been just as cruel for [Franziska] Preuss.”
“If you look at everything she’s done this year, it’s quite a consistent performance. She wore yellow a lot, had seventeen top 6 finishes and was able to confirm this at the World Championships, recovering from extremely difficult situations with missed shots at the start of the race. Above all, she arrives at the age of 30 with a chequered career behind her and quite a few failures… So it would have been just as cruel for her if things had gone the other way.”
“It was very exciting, but there was also the fear of knowing what was going to happen! Both were equally deserving. It was almost hard to live with. If you take away the fact that Lou [Jeanmonnot] is French and our hearts went out to her, I’ll say it again, but it would have been cruel no matter what… On top of that, it ended in the worst possible way. After that, it was exceptional biathlon! Rarely has there been biathlon like that with so much at stake. I think the IBU can be happy to have this kind of spectacle at the end of its season!”
The two rivals emerge together from the last shot to play for the globe on skis
“You can’t believe it, because neither of them flinches! It’s really hard to see what’s next because they both have their qualities. You think that Lou [Jeanmonnot] is normally better on skis, but she wasn’t quite so good in this race… [Franziska] Preuss looked better and, tactically, she’s surprising. She’s a girl who revealed herself at Ruhpolding, in her race strategy, by attacking! She also had the advantage of being more experienced. Lou [Jeanmonnot] is already a very well-cut diamond.”
The fateful moment of Lou Jeanmonnot’s downfall
“When [Franziska] Preuss started to dislocate, I had a moment when I said to myself “Oh no, not the fall” because I immediately thought of a fall, and it happened… I saw myself on the set of Chalet Club [on Eurosport, where she works as a consultant, editor’s note] talking about the collision between Hanna Oeberg and Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold after the Antholz relay. We said it was a fact of racing, but I said that this kind of episode could also happen at the Olympic Games or during a high-stakes race…”.
“I said to myself that every time someone dislocates, they make the other person fall… You understand that you have to dislodge and overtake, but how do you make sure you don’t fall? In this case, the images and words of Lou [Jeanmonnot] put everyone in agreement. She stood back admirably. She replayed the scene and explained that she’d thought she’d made it over the rope. After that, naturally, I think she’ll work on her lioness side, defending her position. It was important not to squeeze her steps and take up even more space. But what if… She thought she was going to go through and [Franziska] Preuss took the opportunity to go through!”
“You can replay the scene 10,000 times, but at some point it’s the words that are worth the most. Maybe [Franziska] Preuss would have gone through after the bend, but there was still some descent before she got behind the shooting range. Both are strong sprinters, so we’ll never know! It leaves room for the imagination and they gave us a unique moment of sport. For Lou [Jeanmonnot], it’s all about moving forward and I don’t think this kind of situation will ever happen to her again!”
A big globe lost on the last occasion, as she did in 2008 to Magdalena Neuner
“For me, it wasn’t the same configuration at all. It’s incomparable! I’d already lost the globe a bit in the sprint. I didn’t have the right approach to the race because of the conditions, it was choppy in spring snow. I wasn’t reassured because I wasn’t strong in those conditions. I thought Magdalena Neuner was going so fast in there! I wasn’t in the right frame of mind. So what happened was what had to happen and I lost.”
“It was painful and I quickly said to myself that she was better. Lou [Jeanmonnot] can’t say to herself that [Franziska] Preuss was better. In my opinion, they were at the same level. What she has to remember is that she managed to be consistent on the skis by finishing the season in great shape and by negotiating shots in confrontation with huge stakes. That will stand her in good stead next year at the Games! We’ll be seeing Lou [Jeanmonnot] again in the future, whatever happens.”
- Oslo-Holmenkollen: Franziska Preuss wins the mass-start and the crystal globe, Lou Jeanmonnot third after a fall in the finale
- Oslo-Holmenkollen: Lou Jeanmonnot’s fall in pictures
- Oslo-Holmenkollen: the French team lodges and then withdraws a protest after Lou Jeanmonnot crashed in the mass-start final
- “She closed the door on me in a very conventional way”: Lou Jeanmonnot looks back on the fall that may have cost him the big globe at the Oslo-Holmenkollen mass start
