Objective of fifteen medals almost achieved for the French team, tenth of the Games with five gold distinctions and half from biathlon. Adequate but perfectible, especially for freestyle skiing, while ice sports, left abandoned, raise questions.
A final day without a podium, and here is the French team leaving Beijing with fourteen medals in their suitcases. A unit away from her record, achieved in quick succession during the two previous editions of Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018. With five gold medals, she equals her best total in terms of Olympic titles. Objective “practically” reached, estimates the president of the French Olympic Committee, Brigitte Henriques, taking stock of the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.
From an accounting point of view, it remains correct, although slightly disappointing given the addition of additional events a priori favorable to the French (Big air, team snowboardcross). Now, could much more be done, given the chances of blue medals at the start of the Games? “Our policy has borne fruit, we are present in freestyle, snowboarding, alpine, biathlon, cross-country skiing and, moreover, we win medals in all these disciplines”, welcomes the technical director of the French Ski Federation, Fabien Saguez.
Biathlon, safe bet
Biathlon has assumed its status as a major medal-providing discipline, by compiling seven podiums, including five just for Quentin Fillon Maillet. With more than a third of the total, the Haut-Jurassien is unquestionably the French athlete of these Games. An exceptional harvest, which made it possible to overcome certain weaknesses, such as the difficult Olympiad experienced by Emilien Jacquelin, world number 2 in the discipline this season, who returns without the slightest individual distinction.
Overall, disappointments were relatively few: Alexis Pinturault came home empty-handed in alpine skiing, as did mogul skiing after two infuriating fourth places (Perrine Laffont and Benjamin Cavet). Pinturault’s poor performance is overshadowed by the three French medals in alpine skiing, who can return to Paris satisfied, with the two good surprises Clément Noël (gold in slalom) and Johan Clarey (silver in downhill).
This is less the case of freestyle skiing, one of the only disciplines to be able to harbor real regrets, given the armada presented before the Games. We would have been entitled to expect one or two additional medals. Especially with the men’s skicross, where all the French were out from the quarters, synonymous with a new zero point after 2018, far from the resounding hat-trick of Sochi. Even with the freestyler Tess Ledeux, who misses her slopestyle event after her silver medal at the end of a superb competition in Big air. Mitigating circumstance: the injuries of Antoine Adelisse (slopestyle, big air) and Marielle Berger-Sabbatel (skicross), which could have improved the results.
Ditto for the French cross-country skiing team, which is doing as well as in PyeongChang (bronze in the men’s 4x10km relay), despite cross-country skiers still well placed in the races, but still a bit too tight to get on the box. , like Richard Jouve and Lucas Chanavat (7th in the sprint relay) or Delphine Claudel (7th in the 30 km).
Ice in the desert
There remains ice sports, where expectations remained almost non-existent. The only real opportunity was the right one, with the golden dancing couple, Gabriella Papadakis-Guillaume Cizeron. Behind, as expected, the absolute desert, with historically weak disciplines, lack of means and infrastructure (short-track, speed skating, bobsleigh, luge, etc.).
In a post-Olympic press conference, the president of the French Ice Sports Federation, Nathalie Péchalat, asks a question that says it all. “Should we focus on practice and licensees or the high level?” asks the ex-skater. She adds : “It is time for France to do this work, to position itself in key disciplines”after recalling the assumed ultra-specialization of certain countries (the Netherlands in speed skating, Russia in figure skating, Germany in the bobsleigh/luge/skeleton triptych).
This question of ultra specialization should lead the next discussions within the National Sports Agency and its high performance unit led by the former coach of the Blues of the hand, Claude Onesta. The latter wishes “to plan towards Milan and Cortina [les prochains Jeux d’hiver en 2026, ndlr]»with an emphasis on recruiting short-term technicians into medal-dropped sports. “We must not hesitate to recruit abroad to give the ability to cross the last stages towards the podiums. We wanted to let Beijing pass. From now on, we will open the discussions. If in some places the culture of performance is too weak, do not hesitate to seek out those who know.