Biathlon: first race and first title for Les Bleus in Lenzerheide
On Wednesday afternoon in Lenzerheide (Switzerland), the French biathlon team got their 2025 World Championships off to the best possible start. A year after winning the world title in Nove Mesto (Czech Republic) in the mixed relay, the French team kicked off the winter’s flagship competition in the Grisons with a gold medal.
“It’s always important to get the champion off to a good start, and we couldn’t have got off to a better start than that, Cyril Burdet, coach of the women’s group, told La Chaîne L’Equipe after the podium. I’m really pleased with Julia’s [Simon’s] reaction in this relay because she had all the ingredients to come out on top. She knew how to stay calm.”
An opinion widely shared by Jean-Pierre Amat, the men’s shooting coach. “It’s obvious that Julia [Simon] did an extraordinary relay despite her fall,” he said. It has to be said that in the first of the three cross-country skiing rounds, the Beaufort native fell in a collision with Sweden’s Anna Magnusson.
Congratulations from Quentin Fillon-Maillet
“Lou [Jeanmonnot] was impeccable and Eric [Perrot] imperial”. It has to be said that the two Frenchmen produced some magnificent passages of play to launch Emilien Jacquelin into orbit. With a clear lead, France took off towards a title that they easily won, despite a penalty lap from the Dauphinois.
“It’s not easy [to arrive alone in the lead on the launch pad], especially in a championship. I felt it as soon as I set up… I’m going to have to learn from what happened on that stand,” explained Emilien Jacquelin.
Perhaps the most talkative of the bunch was Eric Perrot, who , like Julia Simon, was crowned champion in the speciality for the second year running. “I’m proud of everyone and of my own performance. It’s too good, he said. It’s when you sing [La Marseillaise] that you realise you’re at the top with the French team. Those are unique moments when there’s emotion. There was the sun, it was magical. You feel like you’re on top of the biathlon world. You have to savour it. You know how much work goes into it.”
A few minutes after the finish, moreover, Quentin Fillon-Maillet posted a story on Instagram, congratulating his team-mates with: “Proud of them.” So the hatchet seems to have been buried the day after Fillon-Maillet made his sensational declaration, disappointed not to have been selected for the opening mixed relay. It was the perfect day to kick off the 2025 World Championships in style.
- 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”.
- With Maren Kirkeeide, without Tarjei Boe: Norway announces its mixed relay line-up for the World Championships in Lenzerheide
- Lenzerheide: Italy unveils its (ambitious) quartet for the opening mixed relay
- Lenzerheide: on home soil, Switzerland fields a mixed relay team that could cause a sensation
- Lenzerheide: Germany starts its stars, including Franziska Preuss, in the mixed relay
- Lenzerheide: no mixed relay for Elvira Oeberg, Anna Magnusson takes her place
- Lenzerheide: the start list for the mixed relay, first race of the 2025 World Championships
- “We’re aiming for the title”: a 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
