Quentin Fillon Maillet was welcomed by a jubilant crowd Monday evening in Saint-Laurent-en-Grandvaux, his village in the Jura, back from Beijing after a historic harvest of two gold medals and three silver.
Several hundred people let their joy burst when the biathlete arrived around 10 p.m. in the main square of the village.
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“When I see the place filled in my honor, it really touches me.
Thank you very much, very much to you”, launched “QFM” from the platform of a truck in the colors of the Grandvaux Ski Club, that of its debut.
"We cry a lot but with joy"
The one who wrote, in eleven days of competition, one of the most beautiful French pages of Olympism, toured the village, his family stronghold, proudly brandishing his medals.
A rare communion even if the champion has limited direct contact to take the least possible risk with the Covid-19, his winter not being over.
A fireworks display was set off in honor of the country's child.
“We cry a lot this year, but of joy with Quentin who brings us a lot of happiness and we are proud to belong to the Jura”, rejoiced Hervé Lacroix, 54, school psychologist, who follows the champion in many of his competitions.
Miss Jura 2021 had also made the trip.
"It's very, very nice to see him, he's a childhood friend, it's an honor to have seen him again," explained Justine Payet-Goy.
And now the coronation in the World Cup
After landing at Geneva airport in the early evening to applause, Quentin Fillon Maillet quickly took the road to his Jura stronghold, where his supporters, including many families and young people, were waiting for him.
“We admire him a lot, that he went to the Olympics bringing back five medals, that made us very emotional,” Priscille and Inès Monnier, 16 and 14, told AFP.
Quentin Fillon Maillet won five medals, a first for a French athlete for nearly a century: gold in the individual (20 km) and pursuit (12.5 km), silver in the sprint (10 km) , the men's relay and the mixed relay.
Place now following the World Cup with for the 29-year-old Jura the ambition of winning for the first time in his career the big crystal globe of the general classification of which he is the leader.