France & Jalabert situation :
1/ As a former worshipped champion, Jalabert is sort of untouchable in France and still receives tons of support and praise. He’s still commenting the Tour de France every year on public TV. During triathlons, he’s cheered like a half-god, gets a lot of positive attention from the speaker and the public, and you can hear “allez Jaja” everywhere along the run.
2/ There has been actually more coverage in the general media about Jalabert being “Ironman world champion” (of his amateur age group, not always mentioned) than about Sam Laidlow being the 1st french pro world champion.
Most people seem to be happy such a celebrity is racing alongside them. Some triathletes (me included) are uncomfortable with him winning his AG, but I think we are a minority. He doped, got caught, denied (using the “they doped me without me knowing, i didn’t do it” strategy), lied, never apologized, said he doesn’t regret anything, and of course never became a clear advocate of anti-doping.
And Sam had to respond to some journalist putting them in the same basket:
https://www.trimes.org/2023/09/sam-laidlow-vs-jalabert/
Sam (translated by me): ‘I appreciate the publication, but I don’t want to be associated with someone who cheated in sport. I’ve worked way too hard for this to happen. He may be a great athlete, but we clearly don’t have the same values’
Most of the comments I’ve seen following Sam’s response are in support of him, and critisizing the media who try to ‘ride’ Jalabert’s public notoriety, but also Jalabert for not being vocal about the smaller status of his win (age group, not overall) and having a big ego that he needs to feed.