Biathlon: Maya Cloetens, best Belgian biathlete in the history of the world championships
It was in June 2022, at the age of 20 and having just graduated from the FFS federal groups, that Maya Cloetens made her change of sporting nationality official. Crowned world youth champion in the relay in 2021, but barred from the French team, she played up her binationality to take the colours of Belgium.
Since then, the Grenoble native has been making steady progress… but surely. After two seasons marked by podium finishes in the Junior Cup and IBU Cup, as well as her discovery of the World Cup and the World Championships, she has shown great consistency since the start of the winter.
Currently twenty-fourth in the overall rankings, she scored two top 15 finishes in Hochfilzen (Austria) and Ruhpolding (Germany). This Friday, in the sprint at the World Championships in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), Maya Cloetens, with a 10/10, did even better by finishing eighth.
“I don’t think I realise it yet”.
“It’s quite incredible. I knew that if I wanted to do well with the number 16, I had to get to the front of the line. I heard that I was ahead, but I thought that there was a good chance that the thirty best, who started behind me, would get ahead of me, she tells Nordic Magazine. While I was changing, I saw that everyone was making mistakes, double faults… and I realised that I was going to stay high up in the rankings!”
In a race brilliantly won by Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, the Dauphinoise remained in the top 10 right to the end, achieving the best result in the history of Belgian biathlon at the World Championships.
“I don’t think I’ve realised yet, it’s really crazy. Even with a 10/10, in a sprint, I didn’t expect to be so far ahead. It’s incredible for me, but also for the whole team. We knew we could do it, but to do it on the day of the Worlds, when everyone is preparing for it, is crazy! I’m very proud”, she enthuses.
A helping hand from Eole at the shooting range
During her race, however, Maya Cloetens wasn’t feeling at her best. “It was very difficult, but in fact that was the case for everyone because the track is hard, analysed the Belgian. I’m very happy with my race and the way I put it together. I went after every ball and fought hard every lap, without breaking down.”
In the shooting, she says she was “a bit lucky with the wind”, thanking Eole. “I arrived on the shooting range for the prone and I could feel that it was blowing, that there was a lot of wind, she recalls. The moment I got on the mat, it stopped! When I stand up, I pick myself up in the middle, I really go for it every time and it goes.”
Starting at 12.05pm on Sunday, Maya Cloetens will take the start of the World Championships pursuit with bib number 8. Starting 50 seconds off the lead, she could well create a new sensation.
“It’s going to be incredible! There’s a whole bunch of them starting within 10 seconds of me and finishing in 18th place. I can’t wait”, she concludes.
- The full programme for the World Championships in Lenzerheide, the highlight of the 2024/2025 season
- Léna Arnaud: my best memory of… Lenzerheide
- Swiss biathlete Arnaud Du Pasquier presents the Roland Arena, the Lenzerheide stadium used for the 2025 World Championships
- Delphyne Burlet on the challenges of the Lenzerheide world championships
- Two of the four reigning world champions have been retained: the French mixed relay line-up for Wednesday’s opening round of the World Championships in Lenzerheide.
- “We decided to follow the sporting logic”: Stéphane Bouthiaux explains how the French mixed relay team for the World Championships in Lenzerheide was put together.
- Quentin Fillon-Maillet annoyed at being sidelined in the mixed relay at the world championships in Lenzerheide: “I thought I deserved more consideration from the staff”.
- “We’re aiming for the title”: one year after their triumph in Nove Mesto, France will attempt to make it two in a row in the mixed relay at the World Championships in Lenzerheide.
- Mixed relay in Lenzerheide: the first day on which Johannes Thingnes Boe could become the most successful biathlete in the history of the World Championships
- Lenzerheide: France, with Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot, Eric Perrot and Emilien Jacquelin, retain their world mixed relay title
- “We couldn’t have got off to a better start than this”: the perfect start for the French team, which won gold in the mixed relay at the world championships in Lenzerheide.
- “I don’t feel like I made a mistake”: Julia Simon recounts her collision with Sweden’s Anna Magnusson during the mixed relay in Lenzerheide
- Julia Simon and Sebastian Samuelsson crashed, Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold and Hanna Oeberg failed to shoot: an opening mixed relay full of twists and turns in Lenzerheide
- Lenzerheide: Czech Republic surprise silver medallists in mixed relay
- Lenzerheide: seventh in the mixed relay with Lukas Hofer and Tommaso Giacomel, Italy’s Hannah Auchentaller and Dorothea Wierer battled it out on the difficult Swiss track
- “It was fun”: during the mixed relay at the World Championships in Lenzerheide, Britain’s Shawna Pendry was surprised to ski with her idol Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold.
- Lenzerheide: the day after her fall in the mixed relay, Julia Simon did not take part in the day’s official training session
- One year after the unthinkable quadruple in Nove Mesto, the French put their world sprint medals back on the line
- Lenzerheide: why can five French women take part in the World Championship sprint?
- A prestigious, distinctive number for Julia Simon in the sprint and pursuit at the Lenzerheide World Championships
- Dorothea Wierer supports Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold after the Norwegian was insulted on social networks
- Lenzerheide : Lucie Charvatova, at the start of the sprint five years after her surprising bronze medal in Antholz
- Lenzerheide: Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s day of glory, crowned world sprint champion ahead of Franziska Preuss and Suvi Minkkinen
- “The wheel turns”: how Justine Braisaz-Bouchet became world sprint champion in Lenzerheide after a difficult January
- Lenzerheide: Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s photo album with her gold medal in the sprint at the World Championships
- “I hated my race”: the disappointment of Lou Jeanmonnot, sixth in the sprint at the world championships in Lenzerheide
- “Ten years on, Franziska Preuss has won her second individual world medal in the sprint at Lenzerheide.
- “She really believed in her chances”: in the Lenzerheide sprint, Suvi Minkkinen became the third Finn to win a world medal
- “I’m a fighter, I won’t give up”: assures Lena Haecki-Gross, who came very close to winning a medal on home soil in the sprint at the World Championships.
- Lenzerheide: Michela Carrara surprised everyone with fifth place in the World Championship sprint
- “Sometimes you just have to let go”: Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold, who struggled at the World Championships in Lenzerheide, broke down in tears after the sprint.
- Lenzerheide: eighth in the sprint, Maya Cloetens signs Belgium’s best result at the Worlds
