Biathlon: the unusual career of Lou-Ann Vassel, a biathlete from the Hautes-Alpes who competes on the national circuit
The profiles of the athletes on the starting lists for the French Biathlon Cup are varied. Firstly, there are those disappointed by the international selections who want to prove themselves on the national circuit in order to move up to the IBU Cup or Junior Cup as quickly as possible. There are also younger biathletes, U19s and U17s, who are still learning to race at a very high level, as well as athletes who have had a bumpy career.
It’s in the latter category that we might place Haut-Alpine Lou-Ann Vassel. The 20-year-old resident of Guillestre (Hautes-Alpes ) – a village of just over 2,000 inhabitants located not far from Ceillac (Hautes-Alpes) and Arvieux (Hautes-Alpes) – has not had a straightforward career.
Injured by a bullet during biathlon training in December 2020, she simply gave up her hopes of performing before resuming training in earnest at the end of spring 2024. For Nordic Magazine, Queyrassine Lou-Ann Vassel agreed to tell us about her unusual journey.
Shot while training with her club
“I joined the Trolls club in primary school, in CM1, and then I did the whole of secondary school in sports classes. There was a dilemma when I went to secondary school, because we don’t have a biathlon committee in the Alpes Provence. So I stayed at a normal lycée, while continuing with the club. In the year when I wanted to try to perform at national level and then, why not, go to Savoie – a bit like Ludmilla [Roche] has done in the past – I unfortunately suffered a serious injury in December 2020, at the age of 15…”.
“I was shot in the biathlon. We were practising positions in a gymnasium and I was going up against the wall to hang pictures of small targets about ten metres away. A young guy from the club wanted to see if the cardboard I was putting up was in the right place. Except that at the time, the coach was looking after the kids who were setting up the pellet rifles. Five seconds of inattention and he made a lot of mistakes (sic). He’d found a bullet in a magazine when he got home in the evening and, instead of throwing it away, he put it back in a magazine. He aimed and fired.
“I’m not angry with him, there’s no hard feelings, but I just wanted to explain what happened. I also want to make it clear that it wasn’t our coach’s fault. She had given all the instructions and she always checked the chargers at the end of training.”
“The bullet hit me in the elbow. It made a hole in the bone and, as my arm was bent, it went into my forearm. It did a bit of damage to the nerves and arteries. For six months, I went to a rehabilitation centre, had operations and did physiotherapy.
A break from biathlon for several years
“After my injury, I logically didn’t take part in any competitions during the winter, finishing my year of high school in the traditional way. Then at the end of high school, I stopped competing in biathlon because I didn’t have the time to do both.
“After that, I left my native Queyras to go and study STAPS in Chambéry, where I made a great friend, Thémice Fontaine [a biathlete from the Savoie committee who discovered the Junior Cup last December, editor’s note]. In October, she told me that she was bored with lessons and that she was leaving to do something else in Annecy, in the Marketing Techniques IUT, where lessons only take place in the spring. Violette Bony, Lou-Anne Dupont Ballet-Baz and Lionel Jouannaud are all there too.
“I found myself on my own and I didn’t really like the STAPS courses either. In January-February, I decided to stop studying STAPS and, in a bold move, I sent an email to see if I could join the course. And I did!
The desire to compete again has finally returned
“It was from there that the desire to train again and compete again took hold. It was spring 2024 and I had a lot more time. I did a lot of training and I was due to compete again last winter, but I ran into a lot of administrative problems with the entries. In the end, I was only able to do a regional race again in Serre-Chevalier.
“This year was really cool because I was able to do all the summer preparation. I was happy to be able to come back from Arçon and La Féclaz on the Summer Tour, then to Les Saisies in the French Cup. During the three years without biathlon races, I still did the cross-country skiing regionals, which kept me in the game. Shooting, on the other hand, wasn’t really very regular.
“That’s why I was expecting worse when I started again! I’ve always been pretty good on the recumbent, quite instinctive, and with more difficulty on the standing. It’s a bit like things have stayed the way I left them. In fact, this summer, to finance my season, I was working at the Ceillac stadium thanks to my DE debut. I gave ski-wheel lessons up there between my training sessions. I trained on my own, but I was helped by my coach, Vania Picmard, who drew up my training schedules.
What are the objectives?
“I know that I don’t work too much with objectives. I have a bit of a feeling that it closes doors for me. I have more of a guideline and I take things as they come. This winter, I want to come back and race fairly regularly in both the French Cup and the regionals to get things back on track. All that with the aim of doing something more regular next year. The idea is really to come back and lay the foundations.
She has already trained several times in Scandinavia
“Since the start of secondary school, we’ve been doing all our pre-season training in Scandinavia. We were very lucky! We went to Sjusjøen, Beitostølen and Bruksvallarna. As they say, travel makes you young! At secondary school, I fell in love with Norwegian and now I can understand quite a lot of it when it’s subtitled or in basic phrases. As it’s close by, I can also understand a little Swedish.
“My friend, Emile Porret, lives in Sweden. He grew up in the Vercors and was on the Dauphiné committee, then left to study and join a training group in Luleå. I was there from the end of October to the beginning of December, and we moved around quite a bit from Luleå. First we went to Levi, in Finland, where there was snowfarming from October onwards. The following weekend, we went to Skellefteå, then to Gällivare a week before the Swedish opening races. Finally, we went to Boden!
Martin Fourcade, his childhood idol; Lou Jeanmonnot, his current idol
“When I was little, it was Martin Fourcade! I feel like we kind of grew up with that. It was the classic [laughs]. Today, I’d say I like Lou Jeanmonnot. From the outside, I think she’s quite calm. When you hear all the stories about the French team, she gives off something calm and benevolent. It’s cool to have that kind of mentality, on top of all the feats she can achieve on the track.
