He was the headliner of the Blues, the one who was to succeed Martin Fourcade and initiate the collective raid of the tricolor biathlon.
For his first solo event of the Beijing Games, the individual, Quentin Fillon-Maillet masterfully assumed his status.
Despite two shooting errors, the World Cup leader was impressive on skis to win the Olympic title, the first for the French team in China.
On the podium, he is ahead of Belarusian Anton Smolski and Norwegian Johannes Boe.
The World Cup leader could very well have lost the title on his second lying shot, where a foul synonymous with a second minute penalty gave all his competitors a chance.
But the Russian Maxim Tsvetkov and, above all, his Norwegian rival Johannes Boe both made a mistake during their last passage in front of the targets, unlike Fillon-Maillet.
The Frenchman didn't ask for so much: by far the fastest on the track, he then made the difference to get his first individual Olympic medal.
A milestone reached this winter
It is obviously the peak of the career of the Haut-Jurassien, amazing regularity in recent years, with three places of 3rd in the general classification of the World Cup (2019, 2020, 2021) and 69 podiums.
This winter, the 29-year-old biathlete, however, seems to have taken a step forward, wearing the yellow bib for the first time in his career.
His status on skis has also changed, as he himself admits.
“In the past, it was I who was intimidated by Martin Fourcade or Johannes Boe.
Now it's me who finds myself in this advantageous position”, he admitted before the Games.
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The French had already achieved a full box on the first biathlon events so far, with the silver of the mixed relay from the first day of competition, Saturday, and that of Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet on the women's individual on Monday.
All disciplines combined, the Blues are now at five medals (one gold, four silver).