Solidly installed at the bottom of his sofa during the pursuit of Ostersund, ten days ago, Franck Badiou saw him come as big as a house. The fall of Quentin Fillon-Maillet, the rifle that breaks, all that was necessarily a mission for the former shooting trainer of the French biathlon team. “When I see the picture of Quentin getting up with the broken rifle, I say to myself: ‘I think I’ll have some news’. Less than a minute later, Patrick (Favre, the current shooting coach) called me ”. At the same time, QFM sets sail without going through the mixed zone. He goes back to the hotel to see the damage and take his head in his hands. Favre having obtained Badiou’s approval without too much difficulty, he knocks on his skier’s door and informs him of the rescue operation for his “cara”. An Odyssey in several acts.
The mission
The carrier : Stéphane Bouthiaux. The boss of the French biathlon returned from Sweden on Monday 5 p.m. and left Wednesday at 6 a.m. for Hochfilzen.
The deadline: 36 hours to put the lethal weapon back into working order.
The providential man: Franck Badiou, therefore. Silver medalist at the 1992 Summer Olympics in 10m air rifle shooting. A man who likes to pamper machines he knows like the back of his hand.
The diagnosis : “My only fear about the breakage was that it made ‘matches’, that it wasn’t a clean breakage. And on Monday, I immediately notice that it is a net breakage. I already had my procedure in mind.
The operation: “I had thought about the process to catalyze the glues faster. Normally it’s 8 or 9am to get some semblance of hardness, so I thought it was going to be hot compared to the different procedures. But it went well, for two nights with very little sleep. You must also not be distracted by curious colleagues who congregate in the hope of seeing the object up close, as if it were a rarity. “Broken rifles, there are however many in the year”, breaths
Franck Badiou.
The wait: QFM tries to call his former shooting trainer, who leaves him in sight, for lack of time and for fear of harboring false hopes. A few photos sent at the end of each stage will ultimately be enough to reassure the biathlete, who enthusiastically shares the progress of the work on his networks.
The result : “Franck has stiffened the rifle, QFM reported at a press conference on Wednesday. He put some carbon reinforcements to prevent further breakage. Or how to eliminate the weak point after the fall. “Small detail that looks good: Badiou even had time to repaint it,” just to say that the rifle is presentable and that we hardly see anything. “
The fignoleurs and the “sagouins”
The stroke of the paint is not entirely trivial, in that it denotes an almost spiritual link between the biathlete and his work tool. Clément Jacquelin, brother and rifleman of, compares the breakage to “a breakup in love, as if they were breaking a part of themselves”. There are certainly some “sagoons without consideration for their weapon” to use Badiou’s words, but those who love him do not take half measures, particularly QFM, which has also designed a few during his career. career.
The almost obsessive attachment of athletes to their main rifle is also pragmatic. Badiou: “even for those who have a spare, number one is the daily tool, and skiers are always making small changes day after day. The latter can have a second almost identical to the first that does not change anything. “The first lacrosse is a source of confidence quite simply because we are used to running with it”, specifies Fillon-Maillet, who nevertheless makes a point of honor to practice his number two lacrosse just in case.
“All summer it happens to me quite regularly to take my reserve stock where I have a full rifle in duplicate. The whole rifle is double, the barrel, the butt, the carrying system, all the accessories, I have them in double. So during the summer, quite often I take this stick to get used to it and not be surprised in the middle of winter in case I have to take it in hand. “
After all, isn’t this the second time he’s broken his rifle while racing (the first was in Kontiolahti in 2017)?
Jacquelin’s special piece
And in the worst-case scenario, there remains the team’s reserve lacrosse, the tuning of which is a standard compromise between the characteristics of each French biathlete. For example, she had allowed Emilien Jacquelin to slam a 19/20 on the Oberhof mass-start last year despite the breakage of his rifle. A performance that is difficult to imitate since the Frenchman’s summer injury, which forced his brother rifleman to adjust one or two pieces on the toy to ensure a certain stability on the shooting range and that no other stick could reproduce. In other words, if there is a QFM in Emilien, Clément will necessarily have to play Franck Badiou to save the day.