It has been four months since Emilien Jacquelin won that precious individual Pursuit Bronze followed up by Relay Gold at the Milano Cortina Olympic 2026 Olympic Winter Games. Now he is far removed from the biathlon life, living his childhood dream, as a professional cyclist.

“190 kilometres, 4250 metres of climbing”

It is late afternoon in June when Jacquelin rides up to his home in Villard-de-Lans, on a 34-degree afternoon after 7 hours and 30 minutes on the road. He glances down at his computer, “190 kilometres, 4250 metres of climbing. I was supposed to get 4500 meters and it mapped that way, so I think the computer did not pick it up correctly.”

A month ago, 31-year-old broke his collarbone, falling on a wet, oil-covered road while training. But Jacquelin healed fast from the surgery and is past that. “I do not feel it at all when I am on the bike.”

Refuelling 6500 Calories

Coming inside, it is first things first, namely, refuelling. Jacquelin has a nutritional plan from his Decathlon CMA CGM team, recording everything he eats, and carefully measuring the portions to match the plan. “I burned over 6500 calories plus the normal 2500 for me, so I need about 9000 calories to fully refuel.” Over the next hour, he consumes a big jar of chilled oats, two sandwiches, a measured portion of pasta and cheese, two Cokes and more. “I probably will not completely take in all 9000, but I will have a pizza or three (laughing) in a couple of hours. Note that his mother delivered a case of Coke and a huge bag of Haribo just before he arrived home!

Eating like that might make some people look like a shot putter, but Jacquelin is leaner and lighter than his biathlon weight. “I was at about 80.5 kilos, but now am 77.5. I burn more calories as a cyclist.”

“Not as hard mentally as shooting”

At the same time, he feels cycling is easier mentally than shooting. “My job now is to ride 5 hours with some intensity after 4 hours. In biathlon, I have a 30 minute warm-up, an hour thirty of intensity, cool down and go home. It is quite different. You can be in shape but when you shoot bad, you use a lot energy to understand and be better. There are skills in downhill and the peloton, but now it’s only about my pace and watts. It is not as hard mentally as shooting.”

Racing, “the biggest challenge”

Jacquelin, whose last cycling race was 14 years ago, is well aware training and racing are two different animals. “I am not sure what will happen in a race. There are things I can control, to work hard every day, my nutrition, sleep well, do the best I can on intensity and try to develop my skills and relax on the bike. Nobody knows how I will react in a peloton. That is the biggest challenge, but I think I can be ready to be in a race in August. I don’t know if the team will say I am ready; that is part of the mystery. Like in the winter, when it is race day, you focus on that. I think that if tomorrow I am in a race, my mind will be in race mode.”

“When it is pure joy, I do not care if I win or lose”

The two-time IBU Pursuit World Champion re-found joy in biathlon last February at Milano Cortina, after struggling for years “doing biathlon the way others wanted me to do it… Too focused on technique, trying to shoot perfectly….

"So many times, I was so worried about losing that I could not make the podium… Since I took a break in 2022, I think I was only myself twice, in Le Grand Bornand, because the crowd helps me to go full gas. When it is pure joy, I do not care if I win or lose.”

Respect from Ole Einar

After a near-miss fourth place Sprint, two days later in the Olympic Pursuit, “I felt like myself again. It was the first time the people around the biathlon world accepted how I shoot, ski, and dare, even if it is not the best way to be Olympic Champion…I have done better races than I did in the Olympics. I was so surprised to see Ole Einar Bjoerndalen come to see me and say, ‘Congrats, respect.’ He should have been the first one to say after I missed two, ‘He is so bad!’ That all helped me to be more relaxed at the end of the season and have only good races. I re-found my way to enjoy biathlon.”

“This is my medal…I controlled my own destiny”

That medal made him rightfully, “proud of two things. First to be an individual Olympic medalist. No matter which colour, I am really proud of that. I worked hard for that and deserved it. Secondly, I did it exactly who I am with my strengths, my weakness. I am so proud to say, ‘this is my medal with myself.’ I controlled my own destiny. Not many people can say they were alone on the last shooting going for the Gold medal. I dared from the first lap and missed two at the end, but that is part of the game.”

Still should he return to biathlon, Jacquelin knows the road to Alps 2030 is a tough one. “Quentin, Emilien, Fabien, Eric and me all want to go to 2030, but it is not as simple as we think. There are a lot of young athletes with energy and motivation. I know that if I really want to be there in 2030, I need to be hungry and feel the same motivation as the young guys. That is what I want to reach by doing this cycling.”

“Same motivation as when I was 20 years old”

“I knew about this challenge (cycling) the Monday after the Olympics, so all through March I was thinking these might be my last races. You never know. Maybe I will be at the Olympics in 2030, maybe not. Right now, my coaches and teammates all think I will come back. No matter what, I am at peace with myself. I am putting all my energy into this. It is a lot of pleasure to do the job at 100% as a pro. I feel the same motivation in training as when I was 20 years old.” A July training camp will have a lot of bearing on Jacquelin’s cycling career. “I have a big three-week altitude camp with the young guys and the Vuelta (a Espãna) group, so it will be really tough. I am focused to be the best I can for this camp. I will know after 5 or 6 days if it will work out. They said it is not about results but my capacities and how I handle myself. It that is good, the story can continue.”

Whatever direction his cycling career takes, Emilien Jacquelin is like the proverbial “kid in a candy store;” excited and can’t stop smiling. “At the end of the day, I feel like I am on holiday, a really, really tough holiday.”

Photos: IBU/Ola Wizor, Emilien Jacquelin/Decathlon CMA CGM, Louis Schwartz/French Biathlon