Cheated on your teammate?
Police briefly take biathlon star into custody
October 25, 2023, 1:54 p.m
The next turning point in the fraud scandal involving the French biathlon team: the police briefly arrest world champion Julia Simon. She is accused of misusing a teammate’s credit card to make purchases.
Biathlon world champion Julia Simon was taken into custody by police in Albertville on Tuesday. The 27-year-old, who is being investigated for credit card fraud, was released after a short time. His client was “neither charged nor referred to court,” Simon’s lawyer Christian Borel told the AFP news agency. However, the investigations would continue.
Simon, overall World Cup winner last winter, was reported by teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, among others. Simon is said to have misused their credit cards for purchases. However, she firmly rejected the allegations, saying that she herself was allegedly a victim of fraudsters. Simon therefore filed a complaint against unknown persons for “identity theft”.
“There are purchases made by credit card with my name on it, but I am also a victim of this situation. My name was used without my knowledge,” Simon explained in an interview with the newspaper “Le Dauphine Libere” back in August .
“My client denies having ordered and received the material,” lawyer Borel explained: “If it wasn’t about high-performance athletes, the case would have been closed.”
Simon initially prepared for the coming season alone in the summer. But she has been training with the French team again for two weeks. The Biathlon World Cup starts on November 25th in Östersund, Sweden. The highlight of the season is the World Cup in Nove Mesto (February 7th to 18th, 2024).