Biathlon: Maya Cloetens puts in career-best World Cup performances
When she took Belgian sporting nationality at the end of spring 2022, Maya Cloetens, the 2021 world youth relay champion in the French colours, simply wanted to continue practising her favourite sport.
“In France, I was blocked by the very high-level selections. I thought about it carefully and quickly realised that I’d have more fun and that I could continue to progress with the Belgian team. It was the best solution for me, and I’m proud to race under the colours of my father’s country”, she told our columns at the time.
Although she had hoped to make her mark at the highest level in the world, there was nothing to indicate that this would necessarily be the case. However, Maya Cloetens seems to have turned a corner at the start of this winter, moving up the order with each race and gaining experience.
She confirmed her good form in a pursuit
Twenty-third in the sprint in Kontiolahti (Finland) last week, she had already shown great promise. But this week in Hochfilzen (Austria), the Franco-Belgian showed her consistency, finishing nineteenth in the sprint and twelfth in the pursuit.
“If someone had told me that before the weekend, I wouldn’t have believed them. Even if I felt I could do it, doing it is something else again! It’s been three great races since last week, and I’m still finding it hard to believe,” she admits to Nordic Magazine.
What makes Maya Cloetens particularly happy and proud is that she was able to confirm her fine results in the sprint, a format she enjoys and in which she regularly performs, during a pursuit.
“The aim was to stay in my own bubble, and that’s what I did. I took a little longer to shoot than the others, but I stuck to my game plan. I could hear the ball was missing and I put it in, and that’s what counted in the end,” she says.
A new state of mind
Twelfth at the finish with 19/20, she even made it into the big leagues. “When I see the table at the finish, I have the impression that there’s a bug…, she says with a slight smile. The aim now is to stay in those places, but I know that the level is excellent and that there will be more difficult days ahead.”
To explain her rise up the hierarchy, Maya Cloetens highlights her “state of mind”. “I feel like I’m in the right place, I’m in the moment and I live my biathlon with a smile on my face, she reveals. I know why I’m here, I’m not scared any more and I’m enjoying myself. I realise that it’s girls my age who are breaking into the world’s top level.”
Next week, at the Grand-Bornand races (Haute-Savoie), Maya Cloetens will also be racing on home soil. “It’s a little girl’s dream, she enthuses. I’ve been there as a supporter in the past and now I’m really looking forward to it, especially as I know I’ll probably be in good shape.”
“I’ve got some friends who’ll be there! My mum’s a volunteer, my sister’s a cook and my grandmother’s from Marseille. It’s going to be incredible, just for the thrill of it, regardless of the result!” A first top 10 finish in a World Cup wouldn’t spoil the party.
- The full programme for the Hochfilzen World Cup, the second stage of the 2024/2025 season
- Corinne Niogret: my best memory of… Hochfilzen
- “It’s like stepping out of the shadows into the light”: between Kontiolahti and Hochfilzen, the World Cup leaves the darkness behind to find the sun again
- “I just feel super happy to have achieved this”: how did Eric Perrot digest his victory in the Kontiolahti mass-start and his assumption of power in the general standings?
- “It’s like one last shot at victory, until you experience it, you don’t know what it’s like…”: during the Hochfilzen sprint, Eric Perrot will experience his first race with the yellow bib on his back.
- “There’s the Dominik Landertinger climb, which is really hard and long…”: Austria’s Anna Gandler describes the track and shooting range at Hochfilzen
- Hochfilzen: Sophie Chauveau, beaten only by Franziska Preuss in the sprint, takes her second World Cup podium finish
- “A mixture of pride, relief and recognition”: Sophie Chauveau, the podium that came just at the right time in the Hochfilzen sprint
- Hochfilzen: Franziska Preuss takes the yellow number from Elvira Oeberg thanks to her sprint success
- Hochfilzen: after the sprint, Océane Michelon once again wears the blue bib as the best U23 player
- More than four years after his last World Cup podium, Fabien Claude finishes third in the Hochfilzen sprint
- “I didn’t win, but for me it’s a great victory”: after 1,463 days without a win, how Fabien Claude returned to the World Cup podium
- “I’m still hungry for victory”: Johannes Thingnes Boe won the Hochfilzen sprint for the first time this season
- Hochfilzen: the photo album of Eric Perrot’s day with the yellow bib
- “It makes you want to go back to him”: Eric Perrot looks back on his Hochfilzen sprint in the yellow bib
- “I really don’t know how I managed to do that…”. when Greenland’s Sondre Slettemark, number 1 in the Hochfilzen sprint, fell on mondovision
- Hochfilzen: Lou Jeanmonnot crushes the chase and triumphs in the Tyrol after a superb performance
- “A perfect race like few others”: Lou Jeanmonnot savours after his masterly victory in the Hochfilzen pursuit
- Hochfilzen: Lou Jeanmonnot in red in the Grand-Bornand pursuit and second overall behind Franziska Preuss
- Hochfilzen: Océane Michelon keeps her blue bib as best U23 and will wear it in Grand-Bornand
- Hochfilzen: after a crazy last lap, Johannes Thingnes Boe wins the pursuit, Emilien Jacquelin second
- “It’s never normal with me”… Emilien Jacquelin crashed while battling for victory against Johannes Thingnes Boe in the final of the Hochfilzen pursuit.
- Hochfilzen: Johannes Thingnes Boe keeps the yellow bib, Emilien Jacquelin third overall before Le Grand-Bornand
