It’s the big day for Lou Jeanmonnot. The tricolor biathlete will try this Friday to become the fifth French biathlete to win the big globe in the general classification of the World Cup and thus succeed Anne Briand (1995), Emmanuelle Claret (1996), Sandrine Bailly (2005) and Julia Simon (2023). Since his arrival in Oslo, theater of the last stage of the World Cup, La Franc-Comtoise has broadcast a smiling face on social networks.
However, he has little doubts that Lou Jeanmonnot, returned twenty lengths from his rival Franziska Preuss thanks to his success on the Mass-Start of Pokljuka last weekend, must deal with immense stress. Even has to foil it? It is the greatest fear of the Habs.
Lou Jeanmonnot’s worst enemy is herself
“I fight against myself. It is not a simple biathlon race, but psychology. It exceeds everything I could experience before. It is not palpable. I am terrified at the idea of arrival on the shot, to screw up everything I have done since the start of the season. My worst enemy is me ”had she explained after having completely passed through the Grand-Bornand stage.
Much awaited after a convincing start of winter, she had chained the disillusions with a 35e Place on the sprint, an 18e on the pursuit and a 14e On the Mass-Start. And these difficulties in dealing with pressure was also felt during the world championships, where she had to settle for a bronze medal during individual races when her friends Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet shone with gold.
A click for Lou Jeanmonnot?
Lou Jeanmonnot had mentioned these mental problems at the start of the season. “Emotionally, everything is extremely strong. I want to cry permanently, to say how difficult it is. This is another scale of biathlon. I can do traditional biathlon, the one who just asks to ski quickly and get well, and I learn the one who asks to fight against himself, to obscure negative thoughts, stress and pressure “She had explained.
The tricolor staff hopes that his success in Pokljuka, after almost two months of scarcity, will serve as a click. “From Lenzerheide, I repeat to her that she must dare, without falling into risk taking. She does not be polluted by her parasitic thoughts, but being an actress ”, explained Jean-Paul Giachino, the Bleues shooting coach, at West France.
Sandrine Bailly, who has known such a situation twice, wants to be optimistic. “She understood that there was not only one key, that it was going to have to adapt, that it was going to be hard on each race, with each snow, with each shot … She knows everything, she already does it much better than I was doing it and she will go to the end”, she said to the Dauphiné.
