Cross-country skiing, prone shooting, standing shooting… It’s time to resume for the Biathlon World Cup, Saturday November 25, with the mixed relays of the first stage of the season, organized until December 3, in Östersund (Sweden). The previous edition ended with the victory of Julia Simon in the general classification – a first for a Frenchwoman since Sandrine Bailly, in 2005. This summer, however, it was less a question of the defense of her big crystal globe than of the affair between her and her teammate at Les Bleues, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet.
Daily life The Team revealed, on July 4, that the 27-year-old athlete was the subject of two complaints for bank card fraud, filed in December 2022 and May 2023 by the reigning Olympic mass start champion and a member of the staff tricolor. Julia Simon is accused of having used their means of payment during an internship with the French team, in Norway during the summer of 2022, to make purchases on the Internet amounting to around 2,300 euros, according to her lawyer, who disputes these allegations.
The national disciplinary commission of the French Ski Federation (FFS) had, for its part, estimated the 1er June “that only the results of the criminal investigation will allow[aie]nt to determine whether the alleged facts [étaie]not proven ». The biathlete was taken into police custody on October 24 in Albertville (Savoie), before emerging free. Investigations continue.
“We don’t ask them to be friends”
“If this had been fiction, it would have seemed like the writers [avaie]pushed the scenario a littleacknowledges to the World Pierre Mignerey, national technical director of the FFS. We have absolutely no control over the judicial calendar, but, if a court decision were to be rendered tomorrow morning, I think that, that same evening, the president [de la Fédération de ski, Fabien Saguez] ask[it] for the disciplinary committee to take up the matter. »
In the meantime, Julia Simon trained for several months alone, away from the French collective, which she finally joined at the beginning of October. “She didn’t feel it, it was her decision, specifies Pierre Mignerey. We continued to support her, and the staff went to do sessions with her. » In Bessans (Savoie), on November 11, she won the selection sprint for the French team. If the 2023 pursuit world champion seems ready physically, what will it be psychologically? “The matter was already underway at the end of last season and she showed that she was capable of going all the way by winning the general classification of the World Cup. She is extremely mentally strong”sweeps Alexis Bœuf, consultant for La Chaîne L’Equipe.
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