Biathlon: Olympic men’s relay title for Les Bleus at last
On Tuesday afternoon, the French men’s biathlon team finally became Olympic relay champions. At theAnterselva Biathlon Arena in Antholz (Italy), Fabien Claude, Emilien Jacquelin, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Eric Perrot gave the French team an intense moment of happiness.
“We’ve been chasing this title for several Olympics now. We’ve often had teams capable of going for the title, but we couldn’t manage it and we’ve often fallen short in the Olympic relay, especially since 2010,” Stéphane Bouthiaux, director of the French biathlon teams, tells Nordic Magazine. The boys managed to win silver in Beijing four years ago, but there was still that little taste of unfinished business.
The joy was intense” when the victory was made official. But there were tears all around. “It’s the end of the Olympic Games, you’re tired and you have all sorts of mixed feelings that come flooding back when you cross the finish line. There were a lot of wet eyes,” says the Franc-Comtois.
“At no time could we have imagined a performance of this level”.
Before this happy ending, the start of the race was tricky with a penalty lap by Fabien Claude, the first relay rider.
Inevitably, you say to yourself that it’s not going to happen again today“, says Stéphane Bouthiaux. In the end, he remained within rifle range of the podium and everyone remained mobilised: the staff at the side of the track and the three other boys. They believed in it, and we always believed in it.
Emilien Jacquelin’s masterful comeback then played an important role in the French team’s golden quest.
“We know about his power and his ability to go very fast in a relatively short time, qualities that not many athletes have. To come out firing like he did and not get stuck at all at the end of the race was just incredible,” explained the boss of the French biathlon. We started 50 seconds behind Norway and he came back 17 seconds ahead. At no point could we have imagined a performance like that. A performance that put Les Bleus on the road to the title.
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