Biathlon: return to the World Cup for Emilien Claude
The last few months for Vosges biathlete Emilien Claude have been a rollercoaster ride. After injuring his back and then operating on a herniated disc at the start of September, he won his time trial to be ready in December for the start of the World Cup in Östersund (Sweden).
Unfortunately, he caught the Covid-19 bug, finishing thirty-eighth in the individual race and then withdrawing from the sprint.
“At Hochfilzen, I was in the recovery phase and it responded quite well even though I was still suffering from symptoms. Then I went back down to the IBU Cup in Lenzerheide, where my body took the brunt of having raced when I was ill. I wasn’t fit at all,” he tells Nordic Magazine. My lungs were inflamed too, so I couldn’t stop coughing. It was a really difficult week, and then I was ill again over Christmas.
The hardest part was accepting that I had made a lot of effort and sacrifices to come back in time for my back, and that Covid-19 was the one preventing me from making a good start to the season,” continues Emilien Claude. There was a way of making a good start to the season.
His week at Arber got the ball rolling again
It wasn’ t until around 27 December – when he arrived in Austria to be reunited with his partner Anna Gandler – that the man from Bassur was able to get back to training at the Seefeld site (Austria).
I was only able to train for a week out of the fortnight’s break,” he reckons. So I arrived in Arber with no idea of where I was going to be: at December’s level or at a normal level. So I was pleasantly surprised by my two second places in the individual short and the sprint. I’m happy that it’s coming back and that my body is responding normally. It’s cool to be back on the wagon and to see that my season won’t be a blank slate, that I’m capable of doing good races.”
That’s how Emilien Claude booked his ticket for the World Cup in Ruhpolding (Germany), scheduled for this week on the same stadium where he won his only individual podium at the highest international level.
“It’s the last chance, and it’s still possible, which is already good”.
Above all, the rider from the Vosges will be in with a chance of a place at the 2026 Olympic Games in Milan/Cortina. “In my mind, I haven’t been thinking about the Olympics since Christmas, because I just wanted to concentrate on myself and get back into the swing of things. I’ll think about the Olympics if I’m selected,” he admits. In the meantime, it’s weekend by weekend. That’s my watchword for 2026.
To secure his ticket to Italy, Emilien Claude will need to keep up his momentum, without overplaying or projecting. “It’s the last chance, and it’s still possible, which is good. At Christmas, I knew there was still a chance, but it was a small one. I’m glad I took it,” he says.
“This winter is a bonus for me because it’s almost a miracle that I’ve got this far with my back. I was ready to do the IBU Cup season no matter what. I just want to get back into shape and be able to do biathlon like I did in Arber,” concluded Emilien Claude, who arrived in Bavaria on Sunday evening.
- The full programme for the Ruhpolding World Cup, the fifth stage of the 2025/2026 season
- Emilien Claude replaces Valentin Lejeune, women’s squad unchanged: France’s selection for the Ruhpolding World Cup
- Jeanne Richard, Emilien Claude and Oscar Lombardot in favourable positions for Olympic qualification: lessons from the French selection for Ruhpolding
