Julia Simon will arrive at the start of the world championship sprint on Friday February 10, from 2:30 p.m., wearing her World Cup leader’s bib. If the Worlds events, organized in Oberhof, Germany, from Wednesday until February 19, are not counted in the race for the big crystal globe, they will still allow the 26-year-old Frenchwoman to exhibit this yellow jersey, the result of a lying shot finally at the level of his talent on skis.
With 93% success in prone shooting – when she had never exceeded 85.5% – and above all a faultless after the first fifty-five balls of the season in this exercise, the figures of the biathlete from Les Saisies (Savoie) are eloquent. “I had a shot [couché] too committed, with little knowledge of shooting. I had trouble analyzing why I was missing my balls, she said in December 2022. It was necessary to demolish everything to find a much calmer, more composed shot, and to be able to understand things better. »
“All the work that Julia was willing to undertake was to understand what is mystical in this prone shot which prevented her from putting them in the bottom, summarizes Franck Badiou, former shooting coach of the French biathlon teams. It is painful to be faced with this misunderstanding. »
“A golf ball placed 50 meters away”
Because the “lying” is the technical shooting par excellence. “It is the most difficult to integrate, while it is the most stable”, continues Franck Badiou. Unlike standing shooting, which is much more instinctive. “He is the most technical, mainly because the target is much smaller than the “standing” one”, explains the French Siegfried Mazet, shooting coach of the Norwegian men’s team. From 115 millimeters when standing, the diameter of the five targets to be shot down is reduced to 45 mm when lying down. “We go from a CD to a golf ball placed fifty meters away”image Jean-Pierre Amat, Olympic rifle shooting champion in 1996 in Atlanta and staff member of the France B biathlon team.
The target being almost three times smaller than when shooting standing, you have to be extremely careful to adopt the right position. The importance of each detail is multiplied at a time during the race when, for the biathlete, the heartbeat linked to the effort is still high. The sensations and the feeling, rifle in hand, are essential since a minimal change in the hold of the barrel has major consequences on the result. “If the shooter, resting with the weapon on his cheek, advances his head one centimeter forward, his bullet will be deflected more than 45 mm, i.e. outside the target”, develops Franck Badiou to explain the difference with standing shooting. Gold “the pressure of the head on the rifle can vary according to stress or emotions”abounds Siegfred Mazet.
The example of Johannes Thingnes Boe, leader of the general classification of the World Cup and winner of eleven races this season, allows us to better understand the subtleties of the exercise. The best skier on the circuit, the Norwegian, five-time Olympic champion, has made progress in prone shooting and has a success rate of 92.2%, after two difficult seasons in this area: 87.1% then 82.9% in 2021- 2022. “The sinews of war is to have exactly the same position and to repeat it. But, for two years, Johannes never had this patience, he changed position every two, three months.analyzes his trainer, Siegfred Mazet.
One of the other key elements to consider in prone shooting success is none other than the wind. Contrary to what one might think, Eole has much more influence on prone shooting than on standing. “The difference is that when standing, the wind acts on the shooter, because the body and the rifle are exposed, whereas when lying down, it acts on the bullet”explains Siegfred Mazet, who was also the shooting coach of the French men’s team from 2008 to 2016.
“A wind of 4 meters per second [une force modérée] enough to get the bullet off the target, even if the sight was placed perfectly in the center”, explains Jean-Pierre Amat. The reason ? Again the particularly reduced size of the black target to be shot down. Standing, a wind of the same strength would not deflect the ball from the target.
Sturla Holm Lægreid, “the engineer”
The prone shot being placed before the standing, whether in the sprint (prone-stand), pursuit and mass-start (prone-prone – stand-stand) events or the individual (prone-stand – prone- standing), his mental approach is different. “That’s not where you win the race but that’s where you can lose it”says Siegfred Mazet.
Less tired than at the end of the race, the athlete is logically more lucid and the result behind the rifle should normally be affected. “These are tricky shots from a psychological point of view, because you are expected to fill up, confirms Franck Badiou, now coach of the French Paralympic shooting team. You are fresh, there is an obligation to position yourself well in the race. The slightest ball lost on the couch makes you rage quite strongly, because it is intolerable. »
Of the thirty-nine biathletes, men and women combined, who participated in the fourteen individual races of the season, only the Belgian Florent Claude, the Swede Martin Ponsiluoma and the French Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet have a better success rate standing than lying.
“A prone shot is mathematical. If we respect the shooting protocol, the ball is necessarily in it.assures Siegfred Mazet, well placed behind his binoculars to observe the Norwegian Sturla Holm Lægreid excel in this exercise (113/115, or 98%). “He is a shooting engineer. He modeled his shot, we workedexplains his trainer. Technically, he is super sharp. »
When a biathlete has integrated all these fine technical notions, the last room for improvement lies in the time spent behind the rifle. The goal is to reduce it to a minimum. But “there is always a limit in the shortening of time which is not to fall into it too quickly”, warns Jean-Pierre Amat. Definitely, prone shooting is a science that you have to know how to understand and master.