Cross-country skiing: Benoît Chauvet, cross-country skier, traileur and… author
He is best known as an international cross-country runner, with 42 individual World Cup starts between 2001 and 2010. He then moved on to long-distance racing, with two Transjurassienne races to his name (2011, 2013). Still active on the national cross-country circuit, he is still collecting podiums and places of honour at the age of 44.
A novel inspired by his own experience
But Benoît Chauvet is also a writer, as he defines himself on social networks. “An athlete AND a writer”, he says on his Facebook page. Alongside his skiing career, he has already published three books: Et sinon, vous faites quoi dans la vie? (Elea Editions, 2012), La p’tite boucle, un tour de France insolite (Du Belvédère, 2014), Et vous, qu’auriez-vous fait? (Elea Editions, 2016). Her latest was published on 1 December. Trois petits chats tells the story of a Parisian’s forced arrival in Haute-Savoie. From his initial prejudices, the neo-rural ends up appreciating and then adoring his new surroundings, thanks in particular to his trail running.
“There are a lot of graphic stories about the trail, but no novels. But there’s a lot to be written on the subject. I’ve written this novel based on everything I’ve seen, with a critical eye,” he says.
He has been familiar with this environment for around ten years. He has won 7 events classified in the UTMB World Series. The last two were in 2025, at the Trail de Salève and the Foulées de Gruffy. There’s a kind of introspection, with a lot of humour,” he says. It’s like Bienvenue chez les ch’tis in Haute-Savoie. It’s important to bring a little joy back into the everyday gloom.
“I want to make a name for myself”.
It’s a state of mind that he endeavours to convey in his real-life Instagram photos, which are also trail-oriented. Since September, he has published around forty of them. On average, these have been seen by several thousand people, with one of them peaking at 500,000. The initiative may come as a surprise, given that he had previously been very reticent about social networking. “The idea behind this presence is above all to promote the book. Even as a writer, it’s important to have a community. You can’t avoid it, even if I would have preferred never to have taken that step,” he says unabashedly.
For what he describes as the first part of a trilogy, Benoît Chauvet hopes to sell 6,000 copies of his self-published book, available only on Amazon (€12). A simple step towards a much bigger goal: “I hope it will launch my writing career. After living from sport for several years, I’d like to do the same with my pen. Ultimately, I want to make a name for myself on a national scale. It’s ambitious, but it’s important to make a living from your passions. I keep telling my children that.
Future books in the pipeline
The outline of several other books has already been written. He has called on a professional reader, used to working with major Parisian publishing houses, to help him rework his texts. The projects are a departure from his first publications: “I like to use a humorous style, but I want to vary the pleasures. I’m working on a book about the Algerian war. I have more poetic novels, and I’m also writing a thriller. I want to surprise the reader.
Benoît Chauvet is continuing to put on his skis as he waits for his sporting activities to become more of a pleasure. “I’ll be taking part in all the major winter races, including La Transjurassienne and the Bessans Marathon. As long as I can keep up with the youngsters, I want to keep going”, he says. Before admitting that he has another goal in mind: “My children are 9 and 10, and I’d like to run with them. I’ve got another six or seven years to go…”.
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