Two data summarize the performance of Johannes Thingnes Boe during the Beijing Olympics: one minute and forty-eight seconds, the delay with which the Norwegian biathlete started behind the Russian Maxim Tsvetkov, during the men’s relay, Tuesday, February 15 ; forty seconds, i.e. the one with which he launched the last torchbearer of the NorwayVetle Christiansen, who, benefiting from a “crunchy” Russian Eduard Latypov on the last shot – two laps on the penalty ring – will cross the finish line first.
” It is [Johannes Boe] who puts them back in the game. He made a stratospheric relay, he was full attack in terms of shooting and had a level on skis like never since the start of the Olympics. He was really very good”bowed after the race, Stéphane Bouthiaux, the national technical director of French biathlon – the Blues won the silver medal.
The calculation is simple: Johannes Boe regained, that day, around twenty seconds per lap on the lead of the race. Siegfried Mazet was a privileged spectator: “His performance on skis allowed us to go for gold at the end”, recognizes the Drôme, coach of the Norwegian team since the end of winter 2016, who also praises the composure of Vetle Christiansen on the last shot.
Four medals in five races
The master class on the relay of the youngest of the Boe brothers – Tarje, the eldest, was the second torchbearer – came to sublimate the overall performance of the Norwegian in the freezing biathlon stadium of Zhangjiakou, about 200 kilometers to the northwest Beijing: four medals in five races, including three gold (sprint, relay and mixed relay).
Not bad for the one who had been the best biathlete of the last three seasons – triple winner of the World Cup ranking (2019, 2020 and 2021) –, but who we had perhaps buried a little quickly this winter. Stéphane Bouthiaux nuances: “He’s had great Games, but he wasn’t that reliable behind the rifle. I don’t think he got quite what he came for, not yet anyway. »
Little throwback. Oberhof in central Germany in early January. Johannes Boe achieves his worst results of the World Cup season there (28and sprint, 21and of the prosecution). He who piled up victories in previous years only raised his arms once this winter, in Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie), shortly before Christmas.
In Thuringia, the morale of the biathlete is then at its lowest. “Oberhof was a booster shot. From there, I took refuge in my cave to prepare myself as well as possible for the Games”, he explained after his victory in the Olympic sprint on February 12 at a press conference.
Johannes, his brother Tarje and their teammates, Vetle Christiansen and Sturla Holm Lægreid, decide to stay away from the Ruhpolding stage (Germany), in mid-January, to, they say, better prepare for the Beijing Olympics, the real goal of the season. They leave for an internship in Italy, at 1,800 meters above sea level, more or less the same as at Antholz-Anterselva, the transalpine stage before the Games, and at Zhangjiakou, the site of the Olympic Games.
Winning bet. At Antholz-Anterselva, Johannes Boe regains his legs of yesteryear – best skiing times – but not his shooting accuracy (4and individual, 2and in the sprint, victory in the relay). Sufficient, however, to gain confidence before flying to China. “I was calm only after Antholz-Anterselva, given the way he had performed there, I said to myself “we can go to the Olympics with the right assets”, remembers Siegfried Mazet. When he starts to get results, Johannes becomes formidable. »
“Mano a mano”
Since the start of the Olympic fortnight, Johannes Boe has returned, and he is still gaining strength, according to the Norwegian camp. What does not really reassure Stéphane Bouthiaux: “If he regains his reliability behind the rifle, he will be very hard to beat” during the mass start (“group start”), the queen event of biathlon, Friday, February 18.
A man seems able to challenge him for victory: Quentin Fillon Maillet. The Frenchman, a solid leader in the World Cup, has already achieved almost no faults in Zhangjiakou: five medals in as many races, including two gold (individual, pursuit). Siegfried Mazet attempts the parallel between the two men: “Quentin pays attention to technical detail; Johannes is much more playful, more instinctive. Training, for him, is tedious, restrictive. He really is a competitor. You can play video games with him, you can play football with him, what interests him is winning, he doesn’t care about the rest. »
the mano a mano between the two men, which refers to the finest hours of the Norwegian duel with Martin Fourcade, promises to be one of the peaks of these Games. Friday, at nightfall, “QFM” has the opportunity to enter alone, with six medals around his neck, the pantheon of the Winter Olympics. Not sure that the tall Johannes (1.87 meters), always affable smile, would like to leave him the keys.
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