Quentin Fillon Maillet, behind the scenes of the stair climb

Quentin Fillon Maillet poses, February 19, 2022, with his five Olympic medals from the Beijing Games. FRANCK SEGUIN/SPORTS PRESS

The five Olympic medals from the Beijing Games hung on the left shoulder (i.e. 2.6 kg), Quentin Fillon Maillet poses. Shirtless, in a T-shirt, in a shirt. Standing, sitting. Sparkling eyes light up the shots from a focused but relaxed photoshoot on May 15 at the Harcourt studio in the 16e arrondist of Paris, highlight of a morning launched by a 45-minute jog in the streets of the capital. Just for the sake of effort. Click-clack, it’s in the box: “Photography, we do a lot of it in competition but without taking the time to pose. In the studio, it changes natural settings. And there is a charitable aspect (a book for the benefit of the ociation Le Sport a du cœur, read below), it’s perfect.”

The make-up session, the play of light, the staging, the shots of stars having posed in the place are not enough to turn the head of the leader of French biathlon: “I don’t see myself as a different person with or without…