By confirming that successful coach Siegfried Mazet will return to his homeland, the French Biathlon Federation has put a small exclamation mark at the end of the World Cup season. However, it is still unclear what role the Norwegian’s long-time shooting coach will take. TV expert Michael Rösch has a guess.
If ex-biathlete Michael Rösch has his way, Siegfried Mazet will join the coaching staff of the French women’s national team in the future.
“It looks as if he will now be used in the women’s team in France, which is something completely new for him – and there are definitely a few construction sites,” said Rösch in an interview with “Eurosport.de” with a view to the credit card affair involving Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, which had just marked the beginning of the past World Cup season.
In terms of sport, things could hardly have gone better for France’s women: after her second place last year, Lou Jeanmonnot won the large World Cup crystal ball as well as the small balls in the individual, sprint and pursuit this season. Julia Simon won the mass start classification.
The French women were also in a class of their own at the Winter Olympics: Julia Simon won individual gold, Océane Michelon won gold in the mass start, and neither could be beaten in the relay (with Lou Jeanmonnot and Camille Bened). On top of that, Jeanmonnot and Simon won gold in the mixed relay.
Siegfried Mazet the “Pep Guardiola in Biathlon”
Should Siegfried Mazet actually join the women’s coaching staff, France’s successful biathletes would have “something like the Pep Guardiola of biathlon” waiting for them, according to “Eurosport” expert Rösch: “He is a person of great respect, but he also has specialist knowledge. The way he conveys his training is impressive. The results of the last few years speak for themselves.”
Mazet coached the French biathlon men between 2008 and 2016. He then moved to Norway. The shooting coach celebrated countless successes with the Scandinavians and played a large part in Johannes Thingnes Bø’s rise to record world champion.
The returnee recently announced that France’s biathlon sports director Stéphane Bouthiaux had “various options in mind” as to how he could be used: “I’m good at adapting, so it won’t be a problem for me to adapt to one group or another, or to a different role.” It is therefore possible that Mazet was not just hired as a shooting trainer.
