Biathlon: Eric Perrot ready for his individual Olympic debut
A year ago, Eric Perrot became biathlon world champion for the first time by winning the individual event in Lenzerheide (Switzerland). This success was achieved thanks to a magnificent 20/20 on the mats. This Tuesday, two days after his fabulous victory and the torrent of emotions from the mixed relay, it is at the Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina 2026 that the Peiserot will attempt to shine in this particular format.
In his first career individual race at the Olympics, Eric Perrot will be wearing bib 38 to open the group of favourites. As such, he will be racing blind because he knows little about the performances of his rivals. But that shouldn’t scare the Savoyard, currently wearing the yellow bib and thus the number one contender for Olympic gold.
I’m trying not to change too much what works by keeping it fairly simple,” he told Nordic Magazine before moving to Antholz (Italy). What’s different from a World Cup is everything represented by the Olympic rings.
Don’t take the easy way out or get lazy
On Sunday, with a solid mixed relay, Eric Perrot got his Olympic story off to the best possible start. But he still wants more and better.
I don’t want to fall asleep on good results, because it’s easy to fall into that when you’re confident after putting in some great performances,” he says. It makes you want to do the same thing with a bit less effort, but it doesn’t work as well straight away. So I try to stay very alert to that.
“Just because you’ve got a 20/20 score doesn’t mean you’re going to shoot better the next day, just because you’ve got a yellow bib doesn’t mean you’re going to go faster. These are mental links that have no bearing on the field,” he continues. In reality, you just have to be good in the moment.
“I have to know that I had to get under my skin at every moment of my race”.
And he talks about what he puts in place, mentally, to achieve his goals. “ It’s important to realise, when it works, what really worked,” he says. For example, he says, Eric Perrot had to work himself into the red to be able to shoot 20/20 twice in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) at the end of January.
“Even if it looks easy and seems easy to me when I look back on it, I have to realise that I had to work myself to the bone at every moment of my race. If I want these results to last, then I’m going to have to put myself in the red just as much and set my standards just as high as ever. That’s where I mustn’t let myself be fooled by the illusion of victory through human hubris,” he concludes. The standards must always be the highest.
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- Yvon Mougel, world medallist in 1981 and three-time Olympian, talks about the mixed relay: “The French team played in a dream race”.
