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By Julien Pretot
BEIJING (Reuters) – Martin Fourcade won France’s last five men’s Olympic titles in biathlon before retiring two years ago but the young guard has made it in time to keep the flame alive in Beijing.
Quentin Fillon Maillet is the overall World Cup leader ahead of Emilien Jacquelin, while Simon Desthieux is third in the individual rankings.
Before them, Fourcade won five gold medals at the Sochi and Pyeongchang Games, and silver in Vancouver and Sochi.
“Martin brought a lot to French biathlon and gave it an incredible momentum,” Fillon Maillet, who is taking part in his second Games, told reporters on Thursday.
“I’ve raced with him and witnessed it first hand. I was in his shadow for a long period of time so now I’m happy that we can talk about me.”
France have four men in the world’s top 12, with only Norway doing better with four in the top eight, but they have only one Olympic medal between them – Desthieux’s gold in the mixed relay in Pyeongchang.
“It’s clear that we have a very, very good team and can win a medal in every event (mixed relay, relay, individual, sprint, pursuit and mass start). Collectively we’ve never been that strong,” said Desthieux.
Competitions start on Saturday with the mixed relay, which could turn into a duel between France and Norway, with Belarus looking to cause an upset in potentially tricky conditions.
Cold weather and sustained wind will make it harder for the biathletes for the opening event before conditions are expected to improve next week.
“The wind, however, is not blowing by gusts so we can deal with it on the shooting range. As far as the cold is concerned, I’ve been trying to find some tricks to deal with it,” said Fillon Maillet.
(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Ken Ferris)
