Biathlon: Julie Baverel has a great time in Norway
Last April, 19-year-old biathlete Julie Baverel announced in our columns that she would be leaving for Oslo (Norway) for a year. As a student at Sciences Po Grenoble (Isère), she went on an Erasmus course at the University of Oslo, taking advantage of the opportunity to combine biathlon with her project by joining Holmenkollen Biathlon, a private team based in the Norwegian capital.
It was at the beginning of August, during the Blink Festival in Sandnes (Norway), that Julie Baverel – whose grandfather is none other than the cousin of the great Florence Baverel, Olympic sprint champion in 2006 – arrived in the kingdom.
“I was thrown straight into the deep end, she tells Nordic Magazine. All of a sudden, I was with the team 24 hours a day. I was really stressed about Blink, so it didn’t necessarily go well.”
After this tough start, Saugette landed in Oslo where she settled in with the help of her parents before her integration week at university.
A life change that’s not so easy to manage
“It was very tiring because it takes a huge effort to get to know people and make connections. The funny thing is that most of my friends are French people from Sciences Po like me, she says with a broad smile. It’s funny because it’s quite far from what you imagine Erasmus to be. When you think about it, it’s actually quite logical that all nations work like that, because when you don’t know anything, you inevitably go to people who are like you.”
For Julie Baverel, this change of life in the middle of summer has not been the easiest. “There were ups and downs, she admits. But in the end I’ve integrated well into the team and the university.” The Doubienne lived for several weeks without any reference points and in a totally different environment to that of last year.
“I have far fewer lessons [8 hours a week maximum, editor’s note] and everything is based on autonomy, while the way the team operates is much more autonomous than that of a committee in France, she explains. So every morning, you have to ask yourself the right questions to take charge, which isn’t easy at first. It’s hard, but that’s also how you get to know each other.”
Training in the magical cocoon of the Holmenkollen stadium
Julie Baverel now seems to have found her place in the Holmenkollen Biathlon. “They often make jokes about the French, call me a baguette and bring out the cliché of the Frenchman who moans all the time, she laughs. It made me laugh… because I’m a bit like that. When I miss my last ball, I’m annoyed, I sigh and it shows, I express it. Norwegians, on the other hand, never show anything! I have an anecdote from a training session where we were doing an intense last shot and I missed my last bullet. I put my rifle back with a sigh… The boys who were on the shooting range watching us laughed at me a bit, saying, “Yes, yes, baguette, the French girl’s still moaning!” The atmosphere is great, it’s really cool!”
Since arriving in Norway, the Frenchwoman has always trained at Holmenkollen, the stadium where the World Cup is held every year and where the 2029 World Championships are scheduled to take place. A magical biathlon venue.
“When I first came here, I was impressed because it’s a huge stadium with huge infrastructure everywhere, like the ski jumps right next door, says Julie Baverel. It’s also the location of the stadium that makes it magical. It overlooks the city of Oslo and the fjord, with a slope where you can see the view. It’s truly magical. It’s been said that some places have a special atmosphere, and that’s the case with Holmenkollen. When you get there, you feel something special. The weather, for example, can be all or nothing there. You can arrive one day and not be able to see two metres because of the fog, there’s also wind, and the next day it’s going to be very sunny. That makes it a magical place, you never know what to expect. But that’s not all: training next to Ingrid Landmark Tandrevold is also a plus in terms of making this place special.”
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen’s nephew as coach
Julie Baverel‘s team includes Martin Femsteinevik . The 30-year-old is an experienced biathlete, who won a mixed singles relay in the IBU Cup in March 2017 with Thekla Brun-Lie in 2017 in Otepää (Estonia). Coached by Dag Sander Bjoerndalen, whose uncle is a certain Ole Einar Bjoerndalen, Jon Kristian Svaland and Trym Rostad, the Frenchwoman has been training Norwegian-style for almost three months.
It’s a very different philosophy to the one she experienced in France. “There are a lot more intense sessions, two a week, push sessions and long runs at a moderate pace, Julie Baverel explains. It’s the kind of session I love, where you stop for a kanelboller in a cabin deep in the pampas and set off again. It’s also very different because they don’t do any weight training. I can’t wait to see how it goes this winter, but at the moment I can’t really tell if I’ve made any progress.”
In September, Julie Baverel was able to put on her race number again at the Norwegian Summer Championships in Lillehammer (Norway). Eleventh in the sprint at 9/10 and twenty-first in the mass start at 13/20, she was able to gauge the level of the U22 category where she will be competing throughout the season.
Aiming for a top 5 finish in the Norwegian U22 Cup
“It’s similar if not a little lower than in France, where the junior level is excellent, says the Frenchwoman. So I’d really like to score some top 5 finishes in the Norwegian Cup. What’s going to be nice is that the best Norwegians are going to stay on the national circuit all winter because they’re not going to the Junior Cup. So the aim will be to play up front and, above all, to enjoy myself because I don’t have any good memories of racing after my failed season in France.” A victim of overtraining, Julie Baverel had indeed suffered throughout the winter.
And although she had hoped to take part in the first French Cup, scheduled for the beginning of December in Bessans (Savoie), with a view to securing a place in the Junior Cup before Christmas, she has given up on that objective. “However, I may do the Prémanon round at the beginning of January, reveals the Doubienne. As I’m going back to France for the Christmas holidays [which run from 10 December to the end of January in Norway, editor’s note], there’s a good chance I’ll make the selection.”
In the meantime, Julie Baverel leaves this Saturday for a training camp on the snow in Beitostølen (Norway) with her team. After a week there, she will head for Sjusjøen (Norway), where she will be back in competition on 16 and 17 November… and where, with the help of the French men’s team, she will receive her new cross-country skis.
- “I still can’t get my head around it”: Sciences Po student Julie Baverel from the Côte d’Azur spends a year in Oslo… and joins the Holmenkollen-based team
- Blink Festival: Eglantine Lombardot bids farewell to the competition with her “sidekick Julie Baverel
- Blink Festival: Lola Gilbert-Jeanselme on the podium in the junior prologue, Eglantine Lombardot and Julie Baverel qualify
- Blink Festival: no podium for Lola Gilbert-Jeanselme, Julie Baverel and Eglantine Lombardot in the junior mass-starts
