The French biathlon are aiming for a raid at the Beijing Games and they launched their campaign very well, winning silver in the mixed relay on Saturday.
Defending champion, the Blues had lined up an impressive quartet.
With the two leaders of the men's World Cup, Quentin Fillon-Maillet and Émilien Jacquelin, to succeed Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet and Julia Simon.
They kept their promises.
Ignoring the wind in a mad race, they knew how to keep their calm to afford Olympic silver, only beaten in the sprint by Norway.
Charged with launching the machine in difficult circumstances, with major gusts of wind, Chevalier-Bouchet was nevertheless forced to draw five times and had to go through a penalty round which immediately put the Blues with their backs to the wall, almost '1min30 to the first handover.
Impressively fast on skis, Simon then began the tricolor comeback, thanks to a perfect and supersonic second shot, which put France back in the lead halfway through and gave a glimpse of the best.
An impressive last shot for Fillon-Maillet
Perfectly launched by his compatriot, Jacquelin then increased France's lead at the head of the race thanks to his speed on skis, but collapsed on the second shot, conceding two penalty laps, which made him fall back to third place, in a group fighting for the podium.
Everything then rested on the shoulders of Fillon-Maillet, who then behaved like a boss and caught up with a second flawless shot, which saw him return to the fight with the Russians and the Norwegians for the gold .
In the sprint, however, Johannes Boe was too strong.
France was defending champion, having won gold four years ago in Pyeongchang, but without any of the biathletes lined up this year in China.
