Biathlon: Justine Braisaz-Bouchet with her family in Antholz
Three weeks ago, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet from Savoie was left in good shape for the timed training session at the end of the Lenzerheide (Switzerland) training camp. After withdrawing from the Summer Tour in Prémanon (Jura), the reigning world mass-start champion was present on Monday in Annecy (Haute-Savoie) for the presentation of the French teams to the FFS media partners.
While the rest of the French women’s team(Julia Simon, Lou Jeanmonnot, Jeanne Richard, Gilonne Guigonnat, Sophie Chauveau, Océane Michelon) headed for Ramsau (Austria), a resort they only reached on Tuesday after a missed flight, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet headed in a different direction.
As Cyril Burdet, Les Bleues’ coach, confirmed to Nordic Magazine, the 2022 Olympic mass start champion is training at altitude in Antholz (Italy), where she has brought her family. Caroline Colombo from Meuthiarde, a member of the French B team, is also in Trentino-Alto Adige, as are the Czechs, Italians and Germans.
It is on this recently renovated biathlon stadium that the events for the Milan/Cortina 2026 Olympic Games will be held in a year and a half’s time.
Will his career come to an end after the 2026 Olympics in Antholz?
Last November, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet revealed in our columns that this deadline would mean the end of her career.
“I think I’m at the end of my career. I have this projection that I have three or four years left,” she said at the time. I won’t go beyond that, that’s a certainty. This is the final sprint. A final sprint that La Beaufortaine is preparing meticulously.
“She’ll be joining us for the races in Arçon”, Cyril Burdet added. On 19 and 20 October, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet – like her team-mates – will don her bib in the Haut-Doubs for the last time before returning to the snow at the start of November in Bessans (Savoie).
- The girls on the Ramsau glacier, the boys in hypoxia at Prémanon: before the Arçon Summer Tour, the French team sets off on a training camp (at altitude)
- Justine Braisaz-Bouchet in fine form in the individual event at the Summer Cup in Switzerland
- Justine Braisaz-Bouchet’s announcement: “I’ve got three or four years left, I won’t go beyond that, that’s a certainty”.
- Milan/Cortina 2026 Olympics: the Olympic rings installed in Antholz