Renaud Jay, first French torchbearer, bronze medalist in the Team sprint: “There aren’t too many words for that. It’s a pleasure for everyone, for the sprint group, for the French team, for French cross-country skiing. Now let’s try to take advantage of that. I did everything to give him the relay in the best conditions. We followed Thibaut’s plan (Chêne, the coach of the Blues) to the letter.
On the first lap, I knew I had to get back on my feet fairly quickly because it’s a super winding course with lots of parts where it could be elastic. I managed to put myself back quickly without leaving cartridges. I saw that (Pole) Golberg wanted to ski so I knew I had to follow him. On the last lap, I thought I could attack him but he was going faster and faster. I was already happy to see that we had managed to make the hole for the medal. »
Richard Jouve, second torchbearer, bronze medalist in the Team sprint: “It’s always a pleasure to medal at the World Championships. It doesn’t happen every day, it doesn’t happen every year either (laughs) so it’s really satisfying. We had a monster Renaud! Thanks to him because it was not easy for me today (Sunday). He put me in the best position to take the last stint.
The technicians did a great job because the conditions were complicated for the wax. When I take the last stint, I try to put myself on the skis of (Johannes) Klaebo. Unfortunately, he was very strong so I didn’t succeed. I didn’t know if there were 3 or 4 of us in front. I skied while procrastinating because I knew it was too complicated for gold and I wanted to be sure to get a medal. I preferred to smooth my effort and not do as I usually do because otherwise it would have been expensive. »