ANTERSELVA, ITALY, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Described by her coach as the strongest athlete mentally in the sport, French biathlete Julia Simon proved him right again on Wednesday with another superb display of skiing and sang-froid as she hit 19 of 20 shots to claim the Olympic title in the women's 15km individual race.
Simon's single miss to compatriot Lou Jeanmonnot's two was what made the difference as she won by a margin of 53.1 seconds, the extra one-minute penalty for her second miss costing Jeanmonnot her shot at the gold medal in a sport where the ability to hold one's nerve is prized above all else.
Lora Hristova of Bulgaria was the only one of the three to hit all 20 of her shots, claiming a first Olympic biathlon medal for her country since 2002.
Another compatriot, Camille Bened, and Germany's Franziska Preuss werealso in the mix as the race entered its decisive stage, and that was where Simon's iron-clad mental strength took over.
"It's a lot of feelings when you are standing on the podium, you think about your doubts, your good moments, your bad moments, the people who help you, and yeah, it feels just like a lot of emotions, and I'm really proud of myself today," Simon told reporters.
Coach Simon Fourcade hailed Simon's mental strength on Sunday when the 29-year-old anchored the French mixed relay team to gold in the opening biathlon race of the Milano Cortina Games, and then showed she had plenty left in the tank as she attacked late in Wednesday's event.
"The coach told me that Franzie (Preuss) was in the lead, and so I just tried to ski fast," Simon explained.
"It's bad to say that, but when I was in my last lap, I was just behind her, and when she (Preuss) was in the shooting range and I was at the finish, and I heard that she missed so it was like, okay, it's my day today."
(Reporting by Philip O'Connor, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
