Biathlon star Quentin Fillon Maillet has been chasing form this season. A World Championship medal is still his goal, but everything has to be right for that.
Quentin Fillon Maillet almost robbed himself of a medal at the start of the Biathlon World Championships. As the bottom runner in the French mixed relay, he was almost certain to have bronze just before the end of the race. But instead of turning towards the finish line, the experienced biathlete just kept running, had to turn around and almost gave away third place.
“Oh, my God! Please not like that!”
“For the Excitement”, the 30-year-old later joked on Twitter. His teammates, who had been stunned to watch the whole thing from the outside, were less relaxed: “I was surprised and I was shaking all over the place”Émilien Jacquelin described the scene: “He was already celebrated by the fans. Then I saw that he was on the wrong track and thought: Oh my God! Simon Eder was close. I just thought: Come on, please not fourth! Please not so!”
Running and shooting performance has dropped sharply
So the episode remains just a curious side note. And yet this sprint to the finish provides clues as to why Maillet is not among the favorites at the Biathlon World Cup, which would have been unthinkable a year ago. “I lack the physical as well as mental energy, but I try to fight”Fillon told Maillet Ski Nordique recently. Such a mental breakdown as in the sprint to the finish would probably not have happened to the Frenchman last season.
In addition to the overall World Cup, he won Olympic gold twice and silver three times. This year he is not as good as last year and has not won a race yet. Neither on the shooting range nor on the track does it come close to its actual performance. Compared to the fastest runner, he lost 3.5 seconds per kilometer this year, 2.4 seconds more than last year. His standing hit rate has dropped from 91 percent to 85 percent. When lying down, it deteriorated from 87 to 83 percent.
Poor preparation and too much ambition
The world-class athlete “only” became a top biathlete this season. Podium finishes are the exception, not the rule. Its current home is called Top Ten. A bitter realization. He’s really struggling right now “to produce the biathlon I want”. It’s hard and sad because he expects a lot more from himself.
Stéphane Bouthiaux, technical director for biathlon at the French federation, sees the cause of the drop in performance in the preparation for the season: an illness after the holiday, an operation, plus a lot of press inquiries: “Quentin had a super complicated off-season”he told RMC Sports: “He then went full throttle back into training instead of taking his time and recovering.”
After a weak start to the season, he wanted to catch up over the Christmas holidays. But he fell ill again and the warm weather made preparation at home even more difficult. And so the hoped-for performance explosion did not materialize.
Only the Pokljuka gives hope
Before the season, Fillon Maillet had given out two goals: Big Crystal Globe and the World Championship. While the large crystal ball almost certainly bears the name of Johannes Thingnes Bø, the Frenchman still has a chance of playing at the top at least once at the Biathlon World Championships in Oberhof.
Neither ninth place in the sprint nor twelfth place in the pursuit really give hope – as does the finish in the mixed relay. But in the weeks leading up to the Biathlon World Championships, there were signs of improvement. On the Pokljuka, Fillon Maillet looked like the old man, at least in the pursuit: he started the race one and a half minutes behind, made only one mistake and finished second. His only World Cup podium this season.
The search for the miracle solution
“Maybe I’ll find the miracle solution”, he had said before the World Cup. He also urgently needs it. There are still two chances for an individual medal in Oberhof: the individual on Tuesday, February 14th and the mass start on Sunday, December 19th.
Fillon Maillet’s plan is simple: shoot 20 of 20. “That’s my strategy. I won’t get in shape overnight, but I’ll fight to the end and hope for a medal.” Should he still find his miracle solution, one thing should definitely have been learned: Don’t get excited too soon. Otherwise, in the end, he will still miss making it onto the home stretch.