This is an anomaly in the tricolor biathlon record: the Blues have never been crowned Olympic relay champions.

They have never even done better than third (1994, 2002, 2006) while their teammates have amassed five medals in eight editions since women's biathlon has been on the Olympic program, including a title (1992) and a silver medal (2010).

Another curiosity of this curse of the Olympic men's relay: Fourcade, however considered by many to be the best biathlete in history, has never won the slightest medal over the distance when he was crowned Olympic champion in the mixed relay in 2018 .

But the past, Fillon Maillet takes pleasure in freeing himself from it, as he has shown since his arrival in China.

Full of confidence, on tracks that suit him perfectly, the Jura player exorcised the memory of his poor 2018 Olympics to collect four medals, including two titles (individual and pursuit).

His worst result in four races at Zhangjiakou?

Second, in mixed relay and sprint...

"Other Planet"

"He is on another planet", summarizes Simon Desthieux who is his roommate in the Olympic Village and who will be one of the four Blues in the relay.

The French relay, made up of Fabien Claude, Émilien Jacquelin, Simon Desthieux and himself, "clearly has a chance of a medal" and "will try to go for gold", insists "QFM" which has set itself as an objective to make a full box.

Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet during the biathlon sprint of the Beijing Olympics, February 12, 2022 Tobias SCHWARZ AFP / Archives

"I tell myself after four out of four, now why not six out of six," he said.

Before Tuesday, the French team has already collected eleven medals, including three titles and five to the credit of biathlon, which earned it 9th place in the medal table, dominated by Norway.

Tess Ledeux's contribution stopped with her silver medal in big air: tired after qualifying the day before, she finished seventh in the slopestyle event, won by the Swiss Mathilde Gremaud, ahead of the Chinese Eileen Gu.

Sutter, queen of the descent

The calm after the storm for Kamila Valieva?

At least for the duration of his short program, the 15-year-old Russian prodigy will be able to ignore his resounding doping affair which is upsetting these Olympic Games-2022.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport confirmed on Monday that the Russian anti-doping agency was right to lift its provisional suspension for doping.

A certainty for the 2022 European champion, big favorite for the Olympic title: if she were to finish among the first three on Thursday evening after the free program, there will be no medal ceremony, as long as a decision on the consequences of the positive doping control will not have been taken.

The IOC recalled during its daily press briefing that the entourage of the teenager would be the subject of an investigation: "You can imagine that a 15-year-old teenager does something reprehensible on her own initiative. “, indicated Denis Oswald, member of the IOC.

Denis Oswald, in charge of the commission of inquiry after the scandal of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, refused to draw a parallel between Sochi and Beijing: "We must not forget that this is the only case of these Games (…) The impression I have is that we are not facing a state doping system, organized for several athletes and by several organizations”, he declared.

Italian Sofia Goggia in the downhill finish area, February 15, 2022 at the Beijing Olympics Jeff PACHOUD AFP

The first of the nine titles awarded on Tuesday returned in big air snowboarding, as in 2018, to Austrian Anna Gasser with a score of 185.50 points, ahead of New Zealander Zoi Sadowski Synnott, crowned in slopestyle, and Japanese Kokomo Murase.

Another highlight, the women's downhill was won by the Swiss Corine Suter who deprived the Italian Sofia Goggia for 16/100th of a resounding double, less than a month after a sprained left knee.

Frenchwoman Camille Cerutti fell heavily and had to be evacuated after finishing her race in the safety nets.

© 2022 AFP