Biathlon: Jeanne Richard, the sixth Frenchwoman to reach the World Cup podium this winter
This Sunday afternoon, during the mass start of the Biathlon World Cup in Ruhpolding (Germany), Jeanne Richard climbed onto her very first individual podium. Third in a race dominated by Elvira Oeberg, the Montblanc native, who scored 20/20, manoeuvred perfectly in the final lap to secure this top 3 finish.

All this in a three-way battle with Italy’s Dorothea Wierer and Germany’s Franziska Preuss.
“It was really something, it was really intense, she explained to Nordic Magazine in a video conference as she stepped off the podium. Doro, I knew she was a bit tough and that it was going to be a bit easier than Franziska [Preuss]. I tried to get the inside of her, but she was stronger than me on the small bump. Then I thought I’d go and fight with her at the finish line. We put up a good fight, but I didn’t have the guts to go wide and catch the wind. I thought I could just shift at the end.”
The bad memories of Grand-Bornand have been erased
Jeanne Richard failed to do so, leaving the German wearing the yellow bib in second place. However, to avoid reliving the huge disappointment of the mass-start in Le Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie) when Paulina Batovska Fialkova overtook her on the final straight, she gave it her all.

“I’m really pleased, it’s a nice bit of revenge compared to the mass-start at Le Grand-Bornand, she enthused. I felt that Doro could come back on the line, so I fought all the way. It really helped me, I had the knife between my teeth!”
A recumbent shot with a 99% success rate
Jeanne Richard’s first World Cup podium, as she points out, “means something”. “It’s crazy because I’m surrounded by Dorothea Wierer and Franziska Preuss,” she says. It was also her first 20/20 in a World Cup, with a recumbent shot still at 99% since the start of the winter, that propelled her into the top 3.

“I’m really happy with my lay-up because I can put things down. Even though I’m not a fast shooter, I’m still able to put the ball in the net,” concluded Jeanne Richard. Next week, in Antholz (Italy), she’ll be looking to confirm her fine form and her new world number 5 ranking.
- The full programme for the Ruhpolding World Cup, the fifth stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Ruhpolding
- Same old, same old: the French selection for the Ruhpolding World Cup
- Ruhpolding: first World Cup podium for Emilien Claude, second in the individual race won by Vebjoern Soerum
- Emilien Claude on his first World Cup podium in Ruhpolding: “I don’t feel that my life is changing, but that hard work is paying off after four complicated years”.
- “I cried”: how Anna Gandler, his partner in the Austrian biathlon team, felt about Emilien Claude’s first World Cup podium finish.
- “It’s a real nightmare”: 85th in Ruhpolding, Johannes Thingnes Boe put in the worst World Cup performance of his career
- Ruhpolding: another victory for Lou Jeanmonnot, winner of the individual at 20/20
- “I’m proud of myself for having managed to deal with this different pressure than usual”: Lou Jeanmonnot, winner of the Ruhpolding individual race in red, is delighted.
- “It’s really moving”: third in the Ruhpolding individual, Switzerland’s Amy Baserga signs her best career result
- “I didn’t feel ready at all, I was nervous? Anna Gandler recounts her individual race in Ruhpolding, where she finished sixth at the flower ceremony.
- Ruhpolding: French triumph again in the relay
- “It’s the first Claudium, I hope not the last”: in his first World Cup relay, Emilien Claude wins alongside his brother.
- Ruhpolding: after a magnificent comeback, the French finish third in the relay won by Germany
- “Thank you, big girls! Last after one shot out of eight, how the French women’s team managed to finish the Ruhpolding relay on the podium.
- Ruhpolding: huge success at 20/20, Italy’s Tommaso Giacomel wins the mass-start ahead of Sturla Holm Lægreid and Johannes Thingnes Boe, Quentin Fillon-Maillet in the flowers
- “It doesn’t make sense! Tommaso Giacomel, the man who toppled the Franco-Norwegian hegemony by winning the mass-start in Ruhpolding