Present at the preolympic rally in Hyères, Lou Jeanmonnot spoke for the team its news and the next Milan-Cortina Olympic Games in 2026.
Lou Jeanmonnot had left Oslo and Norway with a heavy heart, filled with strong pain at the moment. This scar born from its fall at the penultimate turn of the Mass-Start when it could drop the big crystal globe, is still present but it is closed. Two months after this painful episode, biathlete was present at Hyères during a preolympic rally for the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games in 2026.
“I switched,” confirmed the native of Pontarlier to the team. It’s part of my life, my experience. It even became a joke now, as soon as it talks about turn, I take a valve and it makes me laugh. It is only sport. “”
Despite the sadness of this failed coronation, Lou Jeanmonnot wants to keep positive: “I feel like I have understood things,” she admits. ” I start to understand myself better, to better know what I need, how I react in this or that circumstance. It is simply the experience. I lived a thousand circumstances, sometimes extreme. »»
Eyes riveted to Italy without pressure
In the south of France, the Tricolore has found some 200 other three-color athletes who will obviously have a role to play during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games. However, the biathlete defends it, it does not project it. “I answer questions as if I was going to be there, but I am not assured of my place,” she said. I want to stay on earth, I have to win my selection. It’s not false modesty, it’s reality: I don’t have my ticket. I have to go get it, like everyone else. I am able. I know I can do it. But our French team is so dense that it is enough to make a few grailles… ”
And as she told the team, she does not intend to ignore certain World Cup heats in order to keep in shape for next February. “This is not the basic objective,” explains Jeanmonnot. I am completely able to take a full season. It will be a question of adaptation. If I am completely burnt and stressed or cannot put one foot in front of the other, there we could think about it. But in any case, today, no reason to do that. »»
