"They all have a story", explains "QFM".

Back on a fortnight of madness.

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The silver of the mixed relay as an appetizer (February 5)

It was as a team that Quentin Fillon Maillet launched his Games and those of the French delegation with a first medal in the mixed relay, a long time in the making.

This race, on the program since 2014, had smiled four years ago on the Blues, who returned from Pyeongchang in gold.

But the tricolor relay was in bad shape on the windy site of Zhangjiakou, before a huge comeback from Julia Simon.

"The first medal, in the mixed relay, was a team race and we can say to ourselves + OK, whatever happens next, there will be an Olympic line on my record +", underlines Fillon Maillet.

French biathletes Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, Emilien Jacquelin, Julia Simon and Quentin Fillon Maillet pose with their mixed relay silver medals at the Beijing Olympics, February 6, 2022 in Zhangjiakou Tobias SCHWARZ AFP/Archives

Last torchbearer and in the fight to the home stretch for the Olympic title, he had to settle for silver behind Johannes Boe's Norway, the beginnings of a duel for the legend during the whole of the fortnight between the two best current biathletes.

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Gold on the individual entry (February 8)

With a setting sun and temperatures very slightly less polar than the previous days, Quentin Fillon Maillet adorned himself with gold for the first time in a solo race in a major championship in an event where he won the first victory of his career ( for a total of 13).

The shooting range is still windy, but less than for the mixed relay.

The 29-year-old from the Jura misses the target twice, just like Johannes Boe, but he flies on the track and finishes a good thirty seconds ahead of his rival.

Frenchman Quentin Fillon-Maillet, individual Olympic champion (20 km), at the Beijing Games, February 8, 2022 at the Zhangjiakou Jewel SAMAD National Biathlon Center AFP / Archives

"The career objective is checked", affirms "QFM", which thus joins Martin Fourcade and Vincent Jay, the only two Olympic champions in an individual race in French biathlon.

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Money on the first flat sprint (February 12)

On the shooting range in sprint, faults are less strongly sanctioned than during the individual.

The missed ball on the prone shot relegated him to around thirty seconds behind Johannes Boe, who won his second Olympic title in Beijing.

This sprint is "the recurrence" affirms Fillon Maillet, "in a format that suits me less, but suddenly which still allows me to place myself for the pursuit of the next day, a format that I like very much".

Frenchman Quentin Fillon Maillet, during the sprint (10 km) at the Beijing Olympics, February 12, 2022 at the national biathlon center in Zhangjiakou Tobias SCHWARZ AFP / Archives

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Gold on the Main Course Chase (February 13)

Less than 24 hours after this third medal, Fillon Maillet sets off again on the high altitude track of Zhangjiakou (1,700 m) for the pursuit, he who won the last four races in this format in the World Cup before the Games.

"I think it was the pursuit that touched me the most: with the way I won the race, the conditions we had that day, validating a second gold medal, that been just incredible", recognizes the one who is gradually entering the legend.

The joy of French biathlete Quentin Fillon Maillet, Olympic pursuit champion at the Beijing Olympics, on February 12, 2022 in Zhangjiakou Tobias SCHWARZ AFP / Archives

The conditions are indeed dantesque, with the snow which has been falling since the beginning of the morning in the Chinese station and a wind which has regained strength.

And yet, on the launch pad, the twenty targets fall one by one.

The last to resist the French, the Russian Eduard Latypov, misses two on the second standing shot.

The last lap turns into a triumphal march.

Frenchman Quentin Fillon-Maillet shoots alongside Russian Eduard Latypov, during the pursuit at the Beijing Games, February 13, 2022 at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Center Tobias SCHWARZ AFP

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The silver relay for dessert (February 15)

In three experiences at the Olympic Games, Martin Fourcade has always failed to climb with his relay teammates on an Olympic podium.

Fillon Maillet achieves this with Fabien Claude, Emilien Jacquelin and Simon Desthieux.

"We're a great bunch of buddies. We've been working together and having fun together for years. I see them more than my girlfriend or my parents or anyone else, so we've bonded pretty well and it will bring us even closer”, explains the locomotive of the tricolor collective.

In a new race with twists and turns, France took advantage of Latypov's incredible feverishness on the standing shot (he only hit three targets in eight cartridges), forced to take two penalty laps, to take the silver medal.

The joy of French biathletes Fabien Claude, Emilien Jacquelin, Simon Desthieux and Quentin Fillon Maillet, before receiving their silver relay medals, during the protocol ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, February 16, 2022 in Zhangjiakou Tobias SCHWARZ AFP/ Archives

Last torchbearer, as for the mixed relay, Fillon Maillet uses two pickaxes, and sees Vetle Christiansen fly away for gold.

© 2022 AFP