When the cross-country skiing pursuit world champion in 2005 landed at the head of the Blues in 2018, the discipline only existed in France through King Martin Fourcade, five-time Olympic gold medalist and seven-time winner of the World Cup.
The Pyrenean retired in 2020, but the French team still remained at the top and even discovered a new indisputable leader, Quentin Fillon Maillet, a sign of the effectiveness of the Vittoz method.
This can be summed up in one word: suffering.
His soft and calm voice contrasts singularly with his approach to training and physical preparation, much stricter than that of his predecessor, Stéphane Bouthiaux, promoted to director of the French teams.
He who has kept his figure as a high-level athlete does not mess with the land, "essential to last all season".
This modus operandi was not instituted without a hitch.
Fourcade, shaped by Bouthiaux, thus took a year to assimilate the precepts of the new boss of the Blues, first experiencing serious difficulties on skis in 2018-2019, before relaunching the following season and being at the fight for the Big Crystal Globe with the future winner Johannes Boe until the last race of his immense career.
Philosophy inherited from the fund
But beyond Fourcade, the Vittoz paw has irrigated the whole group, today of an exceptional density with two Frenchmen in the first two places of the World Cup (Quentin Fillon Maillet ahead of Émilien Jacquelin) and another in the Top 10 (Simon Desthieux 9th).
The interested party has always refused the term "revolution" to qualify the break with the past.
The idea for him was above all to bring a new "dynamic" and to prevent a certain "wear and tear" in the sessions, according to Martin Fourcade.
Vincent Vittoz during a training session in Mongeneve on January 23, 2006 JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT AFP/Archives
Vittoz (46) simply wanted to transpose to biathlon a philosophy inherited from his years as a cross-country skier.
"For me, it's not new, French cross-country skiing has been working like this for 15 years, says the former coach of Espoirs in cross-country skiing. The common point of French cross-country skiers who have won the World Cup, c "It was a big fall job at the level of the land. It had been 10 years since the biathletes had been in the same weight training regimen. I tried to bring variety to the exercises. The athletes were demanding."
The metamorphosis of Fillon Maillet and the outbreak of Jacquelin are clearly to his credit.
"Collective emulation"
"He sometimes made us do things that are hard in training, but once we start the races, we know why we really suffered and why he pushed us at those times", insists Fillon Maillet .
“He is someone who gives 100% and he has changed a lot of things in the team, believes Raphaël Poirée, four-time winner of the World Cup in the early 2000s and the first star of French biathlon. was complementary with Bouthiaux. He arrived in a team with athletes who already had a big engine but they had to adhere to his requests. He is very calm and he has experience of high competition and that has pushed a little everyone. It's a collective emulation".
JPC JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT AFP/Archives
Vittoz also forms a very complementary duo with Patrick Favre, who arrived at the same time as him at the Blues to take care of shooting.
The Italian (49), more discreet than his friend, comes from biathlon (he was vice-world champion in the sprint in 1999) and was able to introduce Vittoz to the specificities of the discipline.
"We've been building this collective for four years and now we have a superb team with different personalities and profiles," relishes Vittoz.
These Beijing Olympics and the raid of the French are the perfect illustration.
© 2022 AFP