Author of a very solid start to the season, Lou Jeanmonnot is leading the Biathlon World Cup. Which is not necessarily good news in view of the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games.
Headliner of a sport which generally provides a good number of medals, Lou Jeanmonnot will be one of the most anticipated French women next February during the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games. The leader of the Blue biathlon team is not the only one able to shine and dream of a podium. But she is the most regular, the most consistent.
The proof? Lou Jeanmonnot currently leads the overall World Cup rankings. This is both very good news, because it shows that the form is excellent, and the confidence is at its maximum. But with a view to the Olympic Games, this can also have a negative side. Because Franc-Comtoise will have many objectives over the coming weeks.
“We will see how it will hold up in this fairly busy month of January. She will be one of the only ones to play on both counts…”observed Alexis Boeuf on Sunday on the L’Equipe channel.
It is true that if we look at the general classification of the World Cup, we find few competitors capable of legitimately aiming for both the big globe and the medals at the Olympic Games. For the Italians Dorothea Wierer (3rd) and Lisa Vittozzi (7th), for example, priority will go to the big February meeting at home. We saw it with Vittozzi’s withdrawal from Sunday’s mass start at Grand-Bornand, due to a slight cold.
“The only one we worry about is Maren Kirkeeide, estimates Alexis Boeuf, in reference to the 22-year-old Norwegian, runner-up to Jeanmonnot in the general. She is young, she is progressing, we don’t know what her limits are. »
Lou Jeanmonnot, a busy schedule
Apart from these two, all the others can afford not to be fully on all the stages, because they do not have the pressure of the big crystal globe. For Jeanmonnot, Alexis Boeuf believes that she would do well to shine in Oberhof and Ruhpolding in January, to give herself a head start and be able to manage a little more in Nove Mesto, the last stage before the Games.
Then, in Italy, it will only be about medals. There will be no points awarded for the World Cup ranking, which has not always been the case in the past.
“This makes it possible to dissociate the two issues, it is not any worse for those who have both objectives”thus validates Martin Fourcade.
