Former biathlete Martin Fourcade takes over as head of the IOC Athletes’ Commission – Liberation

The eminent French champion, retired from the circuit for two years, was elected to lead this Olympic body which represents athletes, along with the Swedish skier Frida Hansdotter.

Martin Fourcade is tackling a new Olympic challenge. At 33, the multi-medal winning biathlete has just been elected to the Athletes’ Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Retired from the tracks since March 2020, having collected five Olympic titles, 13 world titles, seven big crystal globes (finishing first in the overall World Cup standings) and a total of 83 individual World Cup successes, he s about to start an eight-year cycle in this commission, whose mission is “to represent the athletes and support them, both on and off the competition field”.

“I am happy and honored to join the commission. I have been a sports enthusiast since I was little, I had the chance to experience the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996, when I was little. I saw my big brother participate in the Olympics in 2006. I myself participated in Vancouver, Sochi and Pyeongchang, I won more medals there than I could have dreamed of. I believe in the values ​​of Olympism and carrying these values ​​within the movement is important”rejoices the five-time Olympic medalist from France by videoconference.

“We do not come to the commission with a program but with convictions, sensitivities. Coming from winter sports, we often have an interest in nature. We must respond to environmental issues as far as we are concerned. It will also be necessary to be in contact with the athletes to understand their needs, their sensitivities.adds Fourcade.

He is the one who, among the 16 candidates in the running, received the most votes with 971 votes out of the 2,307 cast by from January 27 to February 17 by the athletes participating in the 2022 Olympic Games. The Swedish Frida Hansdotter (alpine skier) will occupy the second seat on this commission which was open for election, having received 694 votes. Both are ahead of some strong candidates, such as Dutch speed skater Ireen Wüst or Czech snowboarder Eva Samkova.

The French biathlon star was already chairman of the Paris 2024 Athletes’ Commission, the organizing committee for the 2024 Olympics. He will be the fourth Frenchman at the IOC session with Guy Drut, Jean-Christophe Rolland and David Lappartient who will officially be elected on Saturday, the athletes of the commission being members of the supreme body of the Olympic institution during their term of office.

“An adventure”

The desire to invest in the authorities dates back to 2016 at Fourcade, eager to“to be attentive to the image conveyed by biathlon”, in particular through its fight against doping. As far as the IOC is concerned, the idea had germinated in 2018 in the minds of this “enthusiast for Olympism”who does not hesitate to affirm that the Games “have changed their lives”. But two personalities of the same nationality cannot sit on the Athletes’ Commission and it already had a Frenchman in its ranks at the time, Tony Estanguet.

It was only a postponement, since in 2019 the man with the seven crystal globes, in competition with Renaud Lavillenie, was nominated as a candidate by the French National Olympic and Sports Committee (CNOSF). Fourcade campaigned in his own way. “I saw the athletes a lot but without necessarily telling them that I was a candidate, he explains. I traveled to all the stages of the Winter Sports World Cup in France before the Olympics. I started from the principle that, to represent them, it was necessary to know them, to know their sports, their particularities.

However, the Pyrenean, who says he has “a fairly busy life”has no plans for the moment to devote himself full-time to functions in sports bodies. “Today is an adventure, I don’t have the will to make a career, he throws. I have other activities and I know that I will not be able to put them aside in the short term […] I’m not saying it won’t come but, today, it’s not my will.