Oberhof (Germany) (AFP)
The second part of the Biathlon World Cup, which starts on Friday with the Oberhof sprint, will be crucial for the future of Martin Fourcade and will inevitably guide his thinking as to whether or not to pursue his immense career.
Leaving for a two-year cycle after the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018, the five-time Olympic champion had announced the color at the time: he would take stock of his future at the end of the 2019-2020 season. While the French (31 years old) is still struggling to regain his great form after a sharp drop in diet last year, his results in the coming weeks and his ability to play the leading roles again will therefore have major implications on his choice .
Without being ridiculous, his mixed start to the season has enough to fuel the mystery (1 victory, 4th overall) even if he says he does not want to think about it before the final stage of the World Cup in Oslo (from 20 March 22), taking care for the moment to "store the positive and note the negative" to feed his thoughts.
His visit to Grand-Bornand at the end of December just before the break for the end of year celebrations did not particularly reassure the rest (12th in sprint, 7th in pursuit, 5th in mass start) with unusual shooting errors but he had judged himself "capable of winning, which was not the case last year", the start of his spectacular tumble after seven years of reign without division.
Fourcade was however stolen the show in the tricolor clan by Quentin Fillon-Maillet, author of two podiums in Haute-Savoie and now 3rd in the race for the big crystal globe. Anything but harmless for those who had hitherto carried discipline in France.
The suspense therefore remains whole and well before this long-awaited end-of-season deadline, there is the triptych of January (Oberhof, Ruhpolding, Pokljuka) to be negotiated, a prelude to the World Championships (February 13 to 23 in Anterselva) which will also enter the balance when making a decision.
- "Invested and motivated" -
In the meantime, Fourcade took advantage of the mini-truce to "relax with family and work well" at La Feclaz (Savoie), according to Blues coach Vincent Vittoz, interviewed by AFP.
"I always find him invested, motivated, added the technician. He made an assertive choice on a well-snowed site with a shooting range which offers him good training conditions. He is always very concentrated and makes asserted choices to succeed and I find him in good moods to approach the month of January ".
But even the former world cross-country skiing champion explains that he does not know Fourcade's intentions regarding his future.
"What answers he will give in the spring, I have no idea, he said. But he must not focus on it, he must detach himself from it and stay in the concrete."
The absence for a still vague period of the Norwegian scarecrow Johannes Boe, holding and untouchable leader of the World Cup, due to paternity, could make the first races of the year more open and offer Fourcade a golden opportunity to revive.
© 2020 AFP