The shower was freezing for Emilien Jacquelin this Tuesday.
Second in the general classification of the Biathlon World Cup, the Haut-Savoyard was one of the great chances of tricolor medals on Tuesday even if he did not make the individual his specialty.
The triple world champion had an ordeal in this race won masterfully by his compatriot Quentin Fillon Maillet.
72nd at the finish, he never really weighed on this race.
It's hard to see such a poor performance coming.
A mental failure
Despite a good start, punctuated by a flawless on the first prone shooting range, Emilien Jacquelin completely lost control on the standing shot.
Three fouls in front of the targets resulted in three hard-to-recover penalty minutes.
In the mixed zone, the biathlete could not hide his frustration for long.
“The disappointment will be stronger and stronger as the days progress, first said Emilien Jacquelin.
I had attacked the race well whether on skis or shooting, I felt that there was a way to do things well and I arrived on this first shot standing up and my legs were shaking and in this sport does not forgive, ”he analyzes.
To explain this nightmare, he points to a failing mind.
“The start of the race was good so it shows that things are going well physically, but to go quickly the head has to decide it and push us to raise the pain threshold and at the end of the 2nd lay down I took the hit”.
Upset, with a lump in his throat, the 26-year-old skier could not hold back his sobs in front of the journalists, almost fatalistic, evoking all these efforts to return to competition after his wrist injury this summer.
“Since August 1, I have put a lot of energy into coming back, to believing in it.
I didn't even know if I was going to be able to be here and I believed it.
I wanted to come back stronger.
I did it until the end of December, I was stronger than before, and then it's life... There are ups and downs and I got run over.
Since then, I've been running behind myself, trying to find my level and trying to do what I know how to do, but it's complicated.
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Almost fatalistic, Emilien Jacquelin will still have several trials to catch up with during these Games.
And this from Thursday, in a sprint.