Cross-country skiing: the incredible collective performance of Les Bleus in Bakuriani
It’s off to a great start for the French cross-country skiing team at the Bakuriani 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival. Under the Georgian sun, individual skate races were on the programme on Thursday, and the French girls, who opened the 7.5km event, dominated the race.

At the front, with the gold medal around her neck, was Prémanonière Gaëtane Breniaux. Two days after taking silver in the 5km classic, the Jurassienne did even better to win the supreme title at this EYOWF, becoming only the second Frenchwoman in history to do so, two years after Margot Tirloy.

After a slow first lap, Gaëtane Breniaux stepped up the pace in the other two loops to win by a margin of 12.8 seconds over Sweden’s Malva Nisen, who took silver after winning the classical event on Tuesday. But the French team didn’t stop there, as Anouchka Neuville, flag bearer at the opening ceremony on Sunday, took bronze.
Lucile Coutaz fourth, just off the podium
On the podium at all the intermediates, the Montblanc native from Pays Rochois, despite a tough finish, managed to counter the strong comeback of her compatriot Lucile Coutaz to complete the podium at 25 sec 0. The skier from Bozel (Savoie), only thirteenth after a third of the race, did indeed deliver a masterful finish… but failed to finish 2 sec 1 from the medal.

Pontissalian Pom’ Rives, who was ill and withdrew for the individual classic forty-eight hours ago, came twenty-third.
Full results
- The full programme for the Bakuriani 2025 European Youth Olympic Festival
- Bakuriani: Anouchka Neuville carries the flag for the French delegation at the EYOWF 2025 opening ceremony
- Anouchka Neuville carried the French flag at the opening ceremony of the EYOWF Bakuriani 2025
- EYOWF Bakuriani 2025: Gaëtane Breniaux takes silver in the individual 5km classic, Anouchka Neuville fourth
- Gaëtane Breniaux, silver medallist in the individual 5km classic at the EYOWF Bakuriani 2025: “I picked up the pace as I went along”.
- EYOWF Bakuriani 2025: Victor Lafrasse wins bronze in the 7.5km individual classic by the narrowest of margins
- “Victor Lafrasse, bronze medallist in the individual 7.5km classic at the EYOWF Bakuriani 2025: “I’m very proud.
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