French biathletes Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet competed on the same relay team on Wednesday.
There has been a buzz around the French national biathlon team before the season. The superstar of the women’s team Julia Simonia bank card fraud is suspected.
A new twist came a month ago when Simon was arrested. The 26-year-old athlete won the overall World Cup last season.
Simon’s national team mate, another hard-class biathlon skier Justine Braisaz-Bouchet claims that a competitor used his credit card without permission in 2022. 2,000 euros went out of Braisaz-Bouchet’s account.
Simon has denied the charges and pleaded identity theft. He is one of the richest athletes on the Biathlon Tour. His net worth was five million euros in June.
There have reportedly been no verdicts in the case yet.
The relationship between Simon and Braisaz-Bouchet is of great interest. On Wednesday, the women’s biathlon relay saw an interesting situation when they were both on the same team, and Braisaz-Bouchet sent Simon on the anchor leg.
Simon spent the summer training outside the national team.
– It was something new. I trained a lot at home and got to try new things. After last year, I needed a lot of time for training, Simon commented for NRK.
Braisaz-Bouchert stated to NRK that there is no place for personal matters in the national team. He describes his relationship with Simon as professional.
Time with the Norwegians
Norwegian star Ingrid Landmark Tandrevoldin according to Simon was part of the Norwegian national team’s high position camp during the training season. It wasn’t a problem for him.
Another Norwegian athlete Caroline Knotten says that Simon also spent time with the Norwegians last season.
– We want to train with the world’s best biathletes. There can be drama within the team as well, but fortunately there are friends outside the national team as well, Tandrevold said and referred to the so-called “biathlon family”.
Braisaz-Bouchet was part of the victorious French medley relay team over the weekend. They were in the team Lou Jeanmonnot, Emilien Jacquelin mixed Quentin Fillon Maillet.
Braisaz-Bouchet is the Olympic winner of the joint start race two years ago. She won her first race medal in 2015 in Kontiolahti, when the French women took the silver relays.
Simon, who is the same age, celebrated the world championship and two other medals at last season’s World Championships.