From relay gold to the road: Jacquelin's summer experiment
When Émilien Jacquelin stepped onto the podium in February to collect his relay gold medal at the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, few could have predicted that within three months he would be riding a road bike at 77.5 kilograms — three kilos lighter than his biathlon competition weight — as a trainee with a professional cycling team. Yet that is exactly where the French four-time Olympic medallist finds himself this summer, and he says it already feels nothing like a holiday.
Jacquelin joined the Decathlon-CMA CGM cycling team's development squad (NewGen) on May 1, 2026, signing on for a six-month trial period. The 27-year-old had cycled competitively as a child but had not raced in 15 years. The change of discipline is striking: where biathlon demands short explosive bursts — a 30-minute warm-up, 90 minutes of high-intensity training, then recovery — his new life on the bike means up to five hours in the saddle at sustained effort. "I feel like I'm on holiday, a really, really tough holiday," he told International Biathlon Union media.
Fourth place in his first race back — despite a broken collarbone
A collarbone fracture suffered in May threatened to derail the adventure before it properly began. But Jacquelin returned to competition faster than expected, lining up for the Marius-Vial Cycling Grand Prix in Avenières-Veyrins-Thuellin, Isère, on July 6. The 90-kilometre amateur race ended in a sprint won by Drôme rider Thibaud Raisin; Jacquelin crossed the line in fourth. For a first outing in a discipline he had last practised as a teenager, the result turned heads.
A July 12 update published by Nordic Mag showed him already plotting his next steps. He has shed roughly three kilograms since joining the team — a significant adjustment for an athlete whose event traditionally rewards power over aerodynamics — and says he expects to be ready to race again in August. "I think I'll be ready to compete in a race in August," he said, according to the report.
August 1: official team colours and a career crossroads
The stakes rise considerably from the start of next month. On August 1, Jacquelin becomes eligible to wear the Decathlon-CMA CGM NewGen team kit in sanctioned events, marking a step from club-level amateur racing to genuinely professional competition. The months that follow will answer the central question hanging over his experiment: is he good enough, and committed enough, to turn cycling into a second career?
The biathlon world is watching with a mix of admiration and apprehension. French federation director Simon Fourcade has said the national team remains focused on other athletes for now, while former champion Marie Dorin-Habert described Jacquelin as someone who "needs to do extraordinary things." His coach, speaking to French media in March, acknowledged the door to biathlon is still open: Jacquelin will assess his cycling progress at the end of August before deciding whether to resume training with the French biathlon squad for the 2026-27 winter season.
A 2030 objective still on the horizon
The 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps remain a stated long-term goal for Jacquelin regardless of which sport he competes in — and that ambiguity is part of what makes his summer story so compelling. If cycling proves unworkable, he has said that returning his shooting accuracy within "two or three weeks" of dedicated practice is not a concern. If it does work, French biathlon loses one of its most decorated and marketable athletes.
His next scheduled cycling event has not been officially confirmed, but Jacquelin has indicated it will fall in August — by which point the answer to the summer's biggest Nordic sports question may be closer to resolution.