Le Grand-Bornand (France) (AFP)

Justine Braisaz finds Le Grand-Bornand on Friday, the scene of her first World Cup victory, but two years after this coup, the young French girl (23) remains in search of regularity, essential to finally cross a course.

This season, the foreclosure biathlete's performance curve is as enigmatic as the character. In four races, she went through all the emotions, starting the winter with a pitiful 83rd place on the sprint of Ostersund followed by a success on the Individual before continuing with a passage by Hochfilzen in the same vein ( 25th in sprint, 4th in pursuit).

A jagged journey that fits perfectly with the elusive nature of Braisaz but that prevents it for the moment, despite its immense potential, from assuming any leadership among the Blue, left vacant since the retirement of Marie Dorin. Follower of the roller coaster on the track and unclassifiable outside, the Savoyard, with discourse often abstruse and disjointed, is more difficult than ever to define.

"One of my relatives often tells me that I need to deconstruct myself to rebuild myself stronger, she said. I think it's a reality. I live in the moment. When I make a bad race, I'm disappointed but behind I manage to put things in perspective and detach myself from people's expectations. I don't need to take a slap but I can bounce back after a slap. "

- Disability -

After her victory at the Grand-Bornand mass start in December 2017, the Frenchwoman was promised a bright future but the deadlines that followed quickly showered these hopes. As she herself recognizes, it is "under pressure" that she loses her means and "succeeds less well (s) es races". Quite a handicap all the same to evolve at the highest level but it is undoubtedly where the key is located to unravel the Braisaz mystery.

But the most confusing thing with the Frenchwoman is that she gives the impression of coping very well with this instability, which has become an accepted trademark.

"Since the start of the season, there have been ups and downs but I'm having fun," she said. "Of course, overall, we can say: + the girl, she makes the pyramids of Giza + but if we take the races one by one, each race has an explanation. I know there are expectations but mine are centered on me and the notion of pleasure. I want to build my races as I decided to build them. "

Franck Badiou, a long time shooting coach for men before taking care of the ladies since this winter, is quite cash when it comes to describing the Braisaz case, comfortable on skis but so confusing behind the rifle.

- "A myth" -

"She does not have a phenomenal force of concentration, he said. In shooting, she does not have the ability to be fine on the technique to be implemented when the time comes with this notion of adaptation . Not everyone is Martin (Fourcade, note). But we manage to communicate well, there is a bit of a myth around her. She is starting to have a more realistic vision of what she is and of what she can do. "

Franck Badiou's words echo those of the French biathlon boss Stéphane Bouthiaux, biting before the start of the Worlds in March in Östersund where she will eventually win the bronze in the Individual: "We always have the impression that "She's absent. When we talk to her, she listens, but I'm not sure she can hear."

For Frédéric Jean, the coach of the Blue, Braisaz "wants to go to the simplest and maybe the yo-yo in its performances is done when it becomes complicated with the by-sides of the race, like the media , an area she doesn't really like, because she's uncomfortable. She then feels in danger and doesn't know how to go about it. "

This is good, Braisaz says he is "liberated", "relaxed" and says he now has "more solid bases on which to lean" before attacking the sprint on Friday in Grand-Bornand. It remains to be seen for what result.

© 2019 AFP