The French team leaves Beijing with a record of 14 medals, including 7 for the biathlon alone, led by a Fillon Maillet in Robocop mode.
The record of Pyeongchang and Sochi (15 medals) is therefore not beaten, even though there had never been so many events for a Winter Olympiad.
In addition to sport, these 2022 Olympics were also marked by the cold and life in the health bubble.
We tried to give you a little summary with a wet finger.
From our special envoy leaving for Beijing airport,
Dear Minutos, dear Minutas,
So, the time has come to close the curtain on these very special XXIV Olympic Winter Games, in this sanitary bubble more hermetic than an insulated bag.
And if we are not unhappy to take the road to leave this giant freezer - 25° again last night vindiou d'vindiou - let's all the same take two minutes to look in the retro and remember this fortnight tricolor made up of historic moments but also some beautiful gadins.
Biathlon, the baobab that hides the forest
We will start by prostrating ourselves in front of the performance of our biathletes – QFM and its 5 medals at the head of the gondola – which bring back to France half of its booty (7 out of 14!).
Throughout the fortnight (even though it was over there, in the nocturnal mixed zone of the Zhangjiakou biathlon track, that we thought we had lost the tip of a frozen toe several times), the Blues and the blue women have made us dream through their individual exploits (Quentin Fillon Maillet, Anaïs Chevaliet Bouchet, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet) or collective (silver in the mixed relay and in the men's relay).
But all the same, 50% of French medals… This figure speaks for itself.
He speaks both of the tremendous vitality of this discipline in our country, which proves that there is life after Martin Fourcade, but he also cannot hide the obvious observation that, without skiers/shooters, France is gray mine in the hierarchy of winter sports.
Big disappointment especially for all the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events (two medals in all and for all) which we expected so much.
Milan-Cortina is in four years, we will have to get back to work quickly, children.
Papadakis/Cizeron, finally the consecration
We are happy to have got up at dawn to take the luxurious train to Beijing (take the grain of the SNCF) and attend the coronation of the best couple in the world in figure skating, four years after the costume-gate of Pyeongchang.
However, that morning, at the Capital Indoor Stadium in Beijing, the tension was palpable when Gabriella Papadakis and Guillaume Cizeron stepped onto the ice.
From Romain Haguenauer, their trainer, to Nathalie Péchalat, via the large French delegation massed in the stands and the journalists, everyone was in knots in their stomachs.
But after four minutes of a free program recited on the end of the blades, the two friends were able to exult, not a single error on the board and a victory hands down against their Russian competitors.
Far from Russian homophobic attacks, Papadakis and Cizeron fly to gold via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/tlsFSGDLnT
– 20 Minutes Sport (@20minutesSport) February 13, 2022
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The alpine, between beautiful surprises and big slaps
Alpine skiing is not doing too badly either, with three medals obtained by the boys.
By grabbing bronze in the giant slalom, the sanguine Mathieu Faivre was able to put behind him his uncontrolled skid from Pyeongchang, while Clément Noël (gold), who arrived here with a loss of confidence, was able to switch mentally at the best of times and become again what he is, according to his coaches, “the best slalomer in the world”.
Special mention all the same for grandpa Clarey who, from the height of his 41 springs, went to get a magnificent silver medal just before hanging up his skis.
In the mixed zone, his emotion was beautiful to see.
Big disappointment on the other hand for Tessa Worley and, above all, Alexis Pinturault, who will have experienced an ordeal from start to finish of these Olympics.
🥈🇬🇧 SILVER MEDAL FOR JOHAN CLAREY IN DOWNHILL
First medal for the Frenchman, at 41, he becomes the oldest medalist in the history of alpine skiing at the Olympic Games.
pic.twitter.com/oQuitESBkj
– 20 Minutes Sport (@20minutesSport) February 7, 2022
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Pintu and Jacquelin, can't wait for the end (of the season)
Our national Pintu, let's come to it.
Arrived here haloed by the big globe of last season and with big ambitions like the mascot of the Games, the Savoyard missed everything.
We will remember in particular this terrible combination marked by a big mistake during the descent and his fall in slalom, with a shoulder injury as a pineapple on the pizza.
In tears for long minutes in front of us, the French already seemed quite exhausted.
But it was nothing after Wednesday's slalom, after another disappointment.
While Clément Noël was on the podium just behind him, he gave us his assessment and did not hide his desire to drop everything for a while.
“I don't want to hide, it's not good.
It's not the Games in particular, it's my season that has been like that.
There was just no miracle actually.
I attacked the season tired, from race to race I felt that I was nervously exhausted", he let go before admitting that he had "not properly measured the impact that winning this big globe had” on him last season.
“Now I need weeks, even months, to recover from all this.
I have to find this flame and this energy for everything to realign, he continues.
Quite honestly, if I could end my season there, I would be very happy.
But I will continue to hang on, round my back and rebuild myself.
»
If there is another who is not unhappy to see the flame of the Games go out, it is Emilien Jacquelin.
Injured in the wrist in pre-season, our little darling always seemed to run behind his shadow.
And on the evening of the last race, the Grenoblois empties his hood and speaks of these Olympics as an "ordeal".
“I really spent two complicated weeks, with a few rays of sunshine in the relay, but I'm happy to be back, he says.
I'm going to go down south, rent a house and do a week of cycling to clear my mind, enjoy, be away from the cold and the biathlon.
I need to breathe.
I feel burnt out both physically and mentally.
»
The boy was so brooding that he didn't even “want to say see you in four years because things could happen by then…”.
Come on Emilien, don't say that.
Nothing like a good sweat in the Mont Ventoux to smile again.
Goodbye Freezer!
As for us, it is difficult to sum up these three very special weeks in China.
We will remember the kindness of these thousands of volunteers who never ceased to bend over backwards to make this life in a bubble as painless as possible.
When we know that they arrived there a month before us and that many of them will only come out after the Paralympic Games (+ 3 weeks of mandatory quarantine), we want to say without any demagoguery that this they are the real heroes of these Olympic Games.
Finally, a word about the cold.
This cold motherfucker!!!
Yes, sorry, but we had to get out.
Three weeks of living in temperatures varying between -15 on good days and -30 (downwind) on the worst nights, honestly it's not human.
So everyone went there with their little D system, from the athletes with their heating bands heat-sealed on their faces, to us and our poor heaters from a brand that we won't name but which goes all out in shape.
Incidentally, Decathlon – because it's you we're talking about – you'd be nice in the future not to sell dreams to the chilly: No, your heaters do ABSOLUTELY NOT last five hours, but at most 1h30.
And again, we're nice.
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Alexis Pinturault
Biathlon
Quentin Fillon Maillet
China
Winter Olympics 2022
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