We didn’t see it coming. In any case not to this point. The big Crystal Globe of Quentin Fillon-Maillet in biathlon after a hegemonic season marked by this fantastic Olympic interlude. From Martin Fourcade in the text. Something we thought we would never see again after the boss retired from sport for one or two generations, at least.
But let’s face it frankly. Whatever happens to the end of QFM’s career, whatever the future successes, the emotions procured and with the immense respect due to him, Fourcade will remain Fourcade. The one we have accompanied throughout the last decade and the one who has permanently installed biathlon in the scenery at 20 minutes. A matter of results, a lot, and personality, too.
Frozen feet then sinusitis in Sochi
That for having accompanied him, we accompanied him, Martin. Sometimes a little too long. Well, in 2014, we witnessed the cold snap that cost him his ambitions for the end of the Sochi Olympics. A filthy sinusitis contracted after having slammed the money on the mass-start, by dint of freezing his feet in the mixed zone to respond to media requests. Damn journalists. If we had known, we would have abstained. Instead, the poor will finish his Games on antibiotics without having been able to influence the relays, the last Olympic races. Return to France with three medals, including two gold, and an already well-established reputation in the industry. Outside, it’s still a bit sluggish. We will have the proof a few days later.
February 23, 2014, therefore. The elevator opens onto the premises of 20 Minutes, then located on boulevard Haussmann, in Paris. Fourcade advances dragging his suitcase, and presents himself at the reception: he must participate in a chat with readers.
– Hello.
– Hello sir, are you?
– Martin Fourcade.
– And it’s for which company?
He won’t have time to answer, we come to grab him to take him to the editorial office. The hero of the Olympics has never been angry: the return to anonymity does not disturb him.
Martin Fourcade superstar
It takes a little more to annoy the French champion. But not a lot either. Who has read the biathlete’s biography knows that he listens and reads everything that is said about him in the press. And to be honest, we too had the right to see Martin slip into our DMs to stick a blower on us after a somewhat awkward formulation in a paper, with a wet finger dated 2016 on life within the team of France biathlon. It’s dry, clear, but never mean or tinged with spite. No blacklist or boycott on its part, Fourcade has always responded to our requests as far as possible. It has become the showcase for French biathlon and a good reason to deliver the races, week after week. Martin brings people back to 20 minutessite and apps combined, even when it becomes too easy: in 2016-17, the Frenchman ended the season with a record 14 World Cup victories.
There is then only for him. At the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, the phenomenon is amplified by two perspectives: that of seeing Jean-Claude Killy’s medal record fall, and that of not seeing Fourcade again at the Olympics (the 2022 hypothesis still existed at the time). Suddenly, the editorial instructions are clear: “we make boxes on him”.
Message received. One day we write about the skier’s “Federer level” communication, the next day about his disappointment in the sprint, before regaining hope by evoking his preference for the pursuit. Ah, a little nod to past mistakes: in South Korea, where the temperatures hit -20, -30 degrees, we saw the French staff prevent their champion from catching cold in the mixed zone by choking a bit of polystyrene on Slovenian TV to insulate his feet. And that too, of course, we talked about.
Fourcade’s 2018 Olympics on the covers of “Martine”
As all that had become almost caricatured, after all, why not go to the end of the idea? On a stroke of madness, we open Paint and we transform a dozen album covers “Martine” into “Martin”. A blasphemy which the person concerned has never held against us. We always secretly hope that he had a good laugh, like the day when his “holiday in Bali” became a holiday “in Mali” in our ears, forcing the press officer at the time, mocking, to us call to rectify.
We will regret, in this Odyssey with Fourcade, its rapid decline and its end in the shadow of the Covid, without ever forgetting the joys and past successes. The greatest will have been to shine the lights on French biathlon, starting with ours.