Anterselva (Italy) (AFP)

A biathlon monument, the Frenchman Martin Fourcade has multiplied exploits and records throughout his immense career. He added a new page to his legend on Wednesday by winning the 20 km of the Worlds-2020 and being crowned for the 11th time world champion on an individual level, tied with the Norwegian Ole-Einar Bjoerndalen.

4: Fourcade is the only biathlete to have successfully completed the Grand Slam four times (2013, 2016, 2017, 2018), winning the four individual small Globes put into play over a season (Individual, sprint, pursuit, mass start).

5: With two Olympic titles in Sochi in 2014 (pursuit and individual) and three titles in Pyeongchang in 2018 (pursuit, mass start and mixed relay), the biathlete is the sportsman most covered in gold in French Olympism, summer and winter combined. He thus exceeded the three gold medals of Jean-Claude Killy (Grenoble-1968) and the four of fencers Christian d'Oriola and Lucien Gaudin.

7: Between 2012 and 2018, Martin Fourcade never lost the Big Crystal Globe, setting a new record and erasing from the shelves the Norwegian Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, six times winner of the World Cup, between 1998 and 2009.

11: World champion in solo 11 times, Fourcade tied the 11 individual titles of Bjoerndalen. The Catalan, however, shows a larger deficit compared to Bjoerndalen if we add the collective titles of "Patriarche" with Norway (9 by teams, for a total of 20, against a single title, in mixed relay, for Fourcade) .

22: Fourcade signed 22 podiums on the 26 races disputed in 2016-2017 and 20 podiums on 21 outings in 2017-2018. He has 148 individual podiums, but is still far from Bjoerndalen, who has collected 179.

25: Fourcade added on Wednesday, by winning the 20 km World Cup, a 25th small crystal globe to its record. No one else has done better than him.

82: The Catalan has totaled 82 individual victories since the start of his career. The first goes back to the pursuit of Kontiolahti in Finland during the 2009/10 season. It is only 13 units from Bjoerndalen, which remains the benchmark with 95 successes. Fourcade must announce at the end of the season if he continues the adventure for two more years to participate in the Beijing Olympics-2022, or if he retires.

© 2020 AFP