17 Overall Crystal Globes. 32 Olympic Medals. 117 World Championship medals. While they aren’t one of the founding traditional members of biathlon like Germany or Russia or Norway, France has emerged over the last 20-30 years as one of the great powers. Quinton Fillon Maillet and Julia Simon. Raphael Poiree and Anne Briand. Martin Freaking Fourcade! These are some of the names in biathlon over that period. I mean Martin Fourcade is argued about as possibly the greatest of all time.
The French fans are some of the absolute best in the world as well. Just take a look at Annecy every year. It’s become one of my favorite stops on the World Cup. The entire course is packed and it’s wildly loud. The online French fan presence is second to none (Hello @biathlonstats and Balles de Pioche podcast!) and is rapidly expanding. Honestly it wouldn’t be the same without the French in biathlon.
It also helps that the current squad is really really really good. The men have multiple competitors who could win any race they enter. However, the women might be even better including multiple potential crystal globe winners and a bench that is as deep as any federation. I mean seriously if you look from World Cup through the IBU Cup the list of women who could compete at the highest level is wildly long.
So let’s go ahead and take a look at what this year’s edition of the French team might bring for us… Just a quick note, as should be obvious, but with a team like the French there are WAAAAAAY too many athletes for me to cover in one post. So this is just about as many as I felt I could get to.
Women
Quota: 6 Athletes to Start
The Champ
Julia Simon (27)
For years Julia Simon has been amongst the most intriguing talents in biathlon. Always an absolutely ferocious competitor she was a very fast skier but wildly inconsistent shooter. When she hit she was in the mix for the podium or the win. Even before last season’s breakthrough she already had four victories and 11 podiums. The problem was her inconsistent shooting was so inconsistent that when she wasn’t finishing on the podium or top 10 she could absolutely bust out.
Last season though all of the potential came together. It was golden. The shooting was consistent to the most amazing degree. She jumped from 86th in overall shooting to 21st. I mean that’s not just okay at shooting but really damn good. Not only did she raise her ceiling though, she put a really high floor beneath her. She wasn’t having those total bust shooting days anymore. No more missed pursuits. Here are the results: 24 top 20’s in 24 race. That’s great, but it gets better. 21 top 10’s. 18 top 5’s. Please read that again. 18 TOP 5’s! 12 PODIUMS! Four more wins. It was a true championship effort from start to finish.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2018-2019 | 80 | 80 | 80 | 24 |
| 2019-2020 | 80 | 77.1 | 78.5 | 25.7 |
| 2020-2021 | 71.5 | 79.5 | 75.5 | 25.9 |
| 2021-2022 | 85.5 | 77.5 | 81.5 | 26.1 |
| 2022-2023 | 93 | 83.5 | 88.3 | 25.3 |
We already covered above that her shooting was better all around. Her prone shooting jumped all the way to 93%, by FAR her best shooting of her career. Her standing improved to 88.3% which was better than any shooting of any type she had prior to that. Her shooting speed was improved to 25.3 seconds per shooting. Add in that she was somehow even faster than every, ranking 3rd overall in skiing, and you easily have an Overall Crystal Globe champ.
So why should we expect anything less? I have no idea. It is worth mentioning the credit card scandal. It’s beyond the scope of this exercise to go into that now, but it could create tensions and distractions. However, it didn’t do so last year when it was already underway. There also will likely be increased competition from a healthier Elvira Oeberg and even her own squad. And finally, there is the question of can she repeat the performance? Honest answer is I think she can. Purely on the snow last season I like what I saw from her. I’m really excited to see if she can run it back.
The World Cup
While the French team is DEEEEEEEEP these two have nothing to worry about. They are locked in World Cup regulars from start to finish.
Lou Jeanmonnot (25)
Being completely honest before I dive in here, Lou Jeanmonnot is one of my favorite athletes on the World Cup. Watching her establish herself on the World Cup has been a joy to watch. She’s had success at every level of biathlon. She was a Junior Cup overall champ in 2017-2018. She was the IBU Cup Overall champ in 2021-2022. She moved right up to the World Cup last season and she never missed a beat. On the road to finishing 11th Overall she accumulated nine top 10’s including two podiums, both 2nd place finishes. I would call that a successful year if I’ve ever seen one!
Lou Jeanmonnot has been, throughout her career, a really good shooter who also happens to be a pretty darn good skier. At every level she’s had a hit rate of at least 87.1%. That’s an insanely high floor. And last season was definitely not her “worst” as she hit 90.3% on the World Cup. Add in the fact that she is swift on the skis, finishing ranked 19th overall in skiing last year, and you’ve got yourself a very good all around biathlete. The only thing that she’s not great at yet is her shooting speed. She averaged just 31.2 seconds per shooting last year.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2022-2023 | 94 | 86.5 | 90.3 | 31.2 |
Lou Jeanmonnot is here to stay. There is no chance that she’s going backwards. She is a biathlete whose shooting gives her one heck of a high floor. Last year, for example, she finished outside the top 30 just twice. The skiing, even at her young age, give her a high ceiling as well. She has won the Overall on both the Juniors and the IBU Cup. Is it too much to say that she’s a future Overall Globe contender? I certainly don’t think so. It might be a couple of years down the road, but I think it’s definitely in her future. As for this year, just a little bit faster on the skis, and a little faster on the range, and she’s going to be easily into the top 10 Overall. I cannot wait to see it!
Chloe Chevalier (28)
With her sister’s retirement, Chloe Chevalier is our last remaining “knight” on the World Cup. Actually I probably shouldn’t say that as maybe somebody on another team has a name that translates. Oh well. Just like with Jeanmonnot, Chevalier is another one of my sentimental favorites. (Am I a fan of the French team. Uh oh…maybe I’ve been spending too much time talking with @biathlonstats!). Even as her sister was making her way towards retirement, Chloe Chevalier was having the best season of her career. She set both a new career best with her first ever podium, a 2nd in the Sprint in Antholz, and her best Overall finish of 16th. She collected 16 top 20’s, six top 10’s, and 2 top 5’s. All of those were more than she had in her entire career before the 2022-2023 season.
Chevalier definitely had a little improvement in her skiing last year. She moved up to 21st in the overall ski rankings, her best ever year-end finish. This included running about 2-3% faster than the average biathlete, and she had an average course time rank of 15th, all of which were easily her best. However, it wasn’t the skiing that made the difference for her, it was the shooting. Driven mostly by improved standing shooting, up to 87%, she had a new personal best hit rate of 86.3% for the season.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2019-2020 | 83.2 | 87.4 | 85.3 | 33.4 |
| 2020-2021 | 83 | 73.3 | 78.2 | 30.8 |
| 2021-2022 | 82.6 | 81.3 | 81.9 | 32 |
| 2022-2023 | 85.5 | 87 | 86.75 | 31 |
Chloe Chevalier has been steadily improving year over year. There hasn’t been a real “breakthrough” amazing season. But every year she just continues to move on up. She’s gone from being a middle of the pack World Cup biathlete to now decidedly one of the stronger athletes on the circuit. She is still only 28 years old and has plenty of room for improvement. She can still get a little faster and shoot a touch better. Also she only averaged 31 seconds per shooting so there is a little room for improvement there as well. I think it’s pretty easy to imagine Chloe Chevalier having another career best season. Maybe she doesn’t go all the way to top 10, but top 15 Overall is possible.
The Return
Justine Braisaz-Bouchet (27)
The fastest woman on skis is back! Is she still the fastest woman? I guess we’ll find out. Considering she grew a human being in her body and gave birth last year, you can forgive her for taking some time to regain her speed. I just want to take a moment here to really say thank you to women. This is sarcasm or snark, the ability to create life and give birth is truly remarkable. Maybe I’m getting soft in my old age, but watching my wife with our two babies over the last few years (I almost said seasons haha!) has been the most wonderful and amazing experience. That a woman can do it at all is incredible. To do it and to return to one of the most grueling professional sports is truly mind blowing. If you want a good idea of what it is like, watch Baiba Bendika’s Instagram. Incredible.
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming…Justin Braisaz-Bouchet’s comeback from her maternity leave! We first saw her competing again this summer. And while she didn’t look like her old self quite yet it was amazing to see. Prior to that, the last time we saw her was in the 2021-2022 season when she literally the fastest woman in the world, finishing the season ranked #1 overall in skiing. That was nothing new as she ranked top 10 in skiing over the last few years before that as well.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2017-2018 | 79.4 | 80.7 | 80 | 37 |
| 2018-2019 | 77.6 | 77 | 77.3 | 33.5 |
| 2019-2020 | 75.3 | 74.7 | 75 | 33 |
| 2020-2021 | 80 | 73.3 | 76.7 | 31.9 |
| 2021-2022 | 73.5 | 79 | 76.3 | 32.1 |
However, like Julia Simon she was a bit hit or miss (pun intended) with the shooting. Her shooting splits came out as 73.5% prone, 79% standing, and 76.3% total shooting. She could on her hot days be dominant including while winning the Olympic Mass Start Gold medal in Beijing as well as her two other victories and six total podiums that season. She could also have less successful days including eight finishes outside the top 30 that season. Although, it did appear that she was starting to get things together a little more and that led to her finish of 8th Overall, her best ever finish.
Will Justine Braisaz-Bouchet be able to harness all of her abilities this season? Well I guess we’ll find out. No predictions here, just hopes. I hope that as the season goes along that she starts to find herself more and more. I hope that by the time World Champs comes along she’s back in the swing of things. I hope that she finishes the season on a real high note. I hope that heading into 2024-2025 we’re talking about her as an Overall Globe contender.
Who Wants It?
The team has six total spots. I think that the above four will be locked in. JBB is the question as we’ll see what her form looks like. At the very least three of the six are spoken for. The remaining spots will likely come from these women.
Sophie Chauveau (24)
The speedy 24 year old Sophie Chauveau raced into our hearts during her breakthrough racing in Annecy last season. My mental image of that Sprint race is of her being lifted on to the shoulders of her teammates to celebrate with her home fans. It’s so much so that I actually think of her as having been the winner that day, and not Magnusson. She didn’t even come in 2nd, that was Linn Persson. Actually, she was 4th that day. She then followed that up with two more top 10’s that weekend, another in Pokljuka, and a 9th place Pursuit at the Oberhof World Champs on her way to finishing 21st Overall on the World Cup. She definitely seemed to lose some steam as the season went along, but overall it was a heck of a year.
I mentioned above that she was fast, and dang was she fast. In her first season on the World Cup she was good enough for 10th on the overall ski rankings. A heck of a debut. That put her faster than such luminaries like Marketa Davidova and Dorothea Wierer. I mean that’s some heady company. Her shooting was okay. She hit 80.6% overall including 87.1% prone and 74.1% standing. Meanwhile she had a middle of the road shooting time of 32.6 seconds which ranked just 74th.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2022-2023 | 87.1 | 74.1 | 80.6 | 32.6 |
Chaveau profiles similar to her teammates Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet. She is really dang fast with inconsistent shooting. When she hits she competes at the highest level. When she doesn’t it can be a bust. It’s quite possible that she is going to follow the same progress. She’s only just 24 this season and already shooting better than Simon or JBB did at that age. If she can have the same shooting improvement then we could be watching the development of another top 10 Overall biathlete, a World Champion and Olympic medal contender, and maybe…a top Overall contender? Only time will tell. I’m really hopeful though.
Caroline Colombo (27)
Caroline Colombo was probably not anybody’s pick to have a career best season last year, and yet the 27 year old had a pretty significant career best as she finished 20th Overall. From start to finish it was easily her most consistent season of performance, putting up 18 top 30’s when she had just 7 in 35 races prior to this. It wasn’t just consistency though, it was also her top level performance being raised. Right out of the gate in Kontiolahti she finished 6th in the Pursuit, her first ever top 10. But it wasn’t her last. She later grabbed 8th in the Sprint in Antholz and 5th in the Mass Start in Oestersund. It was a great all around season.
For Colombo, the improvement was all about her skiing. While her shooting was if anything just a little bit down from prior performance, her skiing was up. She finished 18th overall in skiing, which showed her finally living up to her ski performance that she had on the Juniors and IBU Cup. Her shooting times were flat, sitting right around 30.3 seconds which is more or less unchanged over the last several seasons.
Was it a flash in the pan or a real breakthrough to a new level of competition? I vote for breakthrough. She was always a really good skier at Juniors and IBU Cup levels. Last year was the first year that she really showed that on the World Cup level. It stands to reason that she’s going to be able to continue running at that level. I am hopeful that she’ll be able to improve her shooting a little bit as well. I’m less bullish on that as she has no prior history of really solid shooting and some really bad seasons in her past. But I still really think that her shooting will continue to improve just like her teammates have been improving. She’s already at top 20 Overall level. If she can do that then at the very least she won’t be any worse. I really think we’ll see her moving on up. She can’t rest too much those as the women behind her are coming!
Gilonne Guigonnat (24)
24 year old Gilonne Guigonnat, younger sister of Antonin Guigonnat, already has 82 career IBU Cup races to her credit. It’s remarkable that somebody so young already has that much of a racing history. What’s even more remarkable is that it isn’t just an accumulation of races, it’s a pile of success as well. Last season she was good enough for 2nd Overall on the IBU Cup. That comes after prior IBU Cup finishes of 14th, 32nd, and 11th. Last year’s 2nd Overall, just barely missing out on the Overall IBU Cup Globe, included 20 top 20’s in 22 races, 13 top 10’s, 4 podiums, and a victory. In the entire season there was just one “dud” race. Basically every other start she was in the mix.
The 24 year old profiles as a very good all around biathlete. Last year she finished 17th in overall skiing, running a solid 4-5% faster than average. She was 12th in overall shooting hitting 87.1% overall including 90.3% prone and 84% standing. The only thing she wasn’t tremendous at was shooting time where her 32 second average shooting ranked 33rd.
The only part of her performance last year that was “out of the ordinary” was her shooting. She’s always been a fast skier and last year was just a normal progression of her working towards her potential. Not that she didn’t get better, but she got better along the path that her history would suggest she would. Her shooting though was really good. It was actually even better than 87.1% for the first half of the season. For the first weeks of the season she was quite nearly 90% overall. Before last year her best for a season was 85.9% and she was normally in the low 80’s or worse.
There is every indication that Gillone Guigonnat is on the path towards being a very good biathlete on the World Cup. She maybe isn’t quite where Lou Jeanmonnot is already, but it wouldn’t shock me that, if given a full season on the World Cup, she had a similar success. Maybe not 11th Overall like Jeanmonnot, but top 15 Overall isn’t out of the question. As long as the shooting continues to improve and the skiing maintains its progression Gillone Guigonnat is yet another potential top 10 World Cup biathlete in the French biathlon stable.
Paula Botet (22)
Paula Botet is yet another of the young and supremely talented French squad. Just 22 years old, she could have spent last season having another successful Juniors career, where she has finishes of 16th, 12th, and 3rd in 2019-2020. Instead she was racing on the IBU Cup where she was having an equal amount of success. She didn’t start the season right away, missing the first week of the season, but when she started she went straight to the podium. From then on it was basically top 10 every time out. During her magnificent 2022-2023 season she ran 17 races and had 13 top 10s, six podiums, and her first career IBU Cup victory. She ended up just behind her teammate Guigonnat, finishing 3rd Overall on the IBU Cup.
Botet is fast. She was 6th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup just one spot behind Selina Grotian. That’s not out of the ordinary for her at all as in the 2021-2022 season she finished exactly 6th overall in skiing as well. She’s also a solid shooter. Over the last three years on the IBU Cup she’s been hitting in the mid 80’s every year. That’s a pretty strong set of data so it’s fair to say she’s established as solid with the rifle. She could stand to be just a touch faster, averaging 33.7 seconds per shooting over the last three seasons.
The next step for Botet? Just continued improvement. Her skiing trajectory is good. She’s not there yet, but she just needs to continue on the path she’s on and if she can make the anticipated improvements over the next several years she’s going to find herself in the top 10 in skiing on the World Cup. Even if she doesn’t improve her shooting one single bit, staying right around 86-87%, she’ll be in contention to win plenty of races. Improve the shooting towards 90% and she’s going to put herself in World Cup Overall Globe contention. Once again, the French team is incredibly deep with talent!
Don’t Look Now
This next group all shows high end talent, we’re just still waiting for it to emerge on the same level as it has for the group above. If you combine them with Paula Botet that’s a wild list of “B” names. The Killer B’s maybe?
Camille Bened (23)
The first of two Bened’s on this list, Camille Bened could arguably be in the group above after she finished 3rd Overall on the Junior Cup twice, and 5th in the Overall on the IBU Cup in 2021-2022. Last season was a minor step backward, finishing 12th Overall. She had one top 5 last year vs. five the season before. She also missed a weekend of racing which was a couple of races in which she wasn’t able to accumulate points.
Camille Bened has for most of her career been a very good skier and a very good shooter. Usually shooting has been just a touch ahead of the skiing. In her 5th place Overall season though, she had a strong improvement in skiing, surging to 24th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup. Last year though, she fell backward just a touch ending up at 37th in skiing. Interestingly, her shooting which has nearly always been high 80’s, or even low 90’s for several years on the Junior Cup, rebounded after a down year. Even while having her career season she hit only 80% in 21-22. Last year though, she was back up to 86.7%, more in line with her career averages. She also got her shooting average time back to 29.7 seconds, back under 30 seconds again.
For Bened her success appears equally related to her shooting and skiing. No kidding, its biathlon! Really it appears that her high level consistent shooting gives her a high floor. Her ceiling is all about her skiing. A rebound of her skiing back towards 21-22 levels would put her back in the top levels of the IBU Cup. It would also make her fairly competitive on the World Cup level should she get consistent run on that level. Regardless, I think she’s in for a good season here!
Fany Bertrand (21)
Young Fany Bertrand hasn’t quite had the same level of success as the women above her on this list. Almost all of them had some level of Juniors success prior to going to the IBU Cup. For Bertrand though, her best Juniors finish was 26th which occurred just last season even as she was focusing on the IBU Cup. She has had six top 10 finishes on the Junior Cup in 13 career races which is a pretty solid ratio. However she’s just missed out on scoring podiums. In her first IBU Cup season she ran 14 races, all clustered between the opening weekend of the IBU Cup and the European Championships (after week 5). In total that was 14 races. She still managed three top 10’s and ten top 20’s on her way to an 18th place Overall finish. Not too shabby for splitting time at 21 years old!
Bertrand, like so many of her French teammates outside of the top of the top, has proven to be a very solid shooter in her young career. Last season she hit a career best 91.9% overall on the IBU Cup and 90% on the Junior Cup. That’s a solid improvement from the low to mid 80’s in her prior racing. Her skiing has also been improving as well and she finished the season ranked 37th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup last year. That was one spot behind her teammate Camille Bened. Over the last two years Bertrand has also brought down her average shooting time to around 30 seconds.
Fany Bertrand is still quite young but she’s been showing very solid improvement. Her shooting is on an exceptionally high level as she ranked 3rd overall in shooting on the IBU Cup last year. This level of shooting would have her instantly at a high level even on the World Cup. The key for Bertrand is going to be speed. She has plenty of speedy teammates to train with and hopefully they will start to share some of their tricks with her! So far her skiing hasn’t changed too much over the last four years. Hopefully this is the year where she takes the steps forward!
Juniors
Jeanne Richard (21)
One of the top performing Juniors of the last two seasons, Jeanna Richard has already started to get some experience on the IBU Cup. Over the last two years she has finished 7th and 6th Overall respectively on the Junior Cup. As a part of that run she has 11 top 10’s in 14 Juniors races. That includes five podiums and four Worlds medals including sweeping silvers at the 2023 Junior Worlds in Kazakhstan. Last season she got six IBU Cup starts and in each of them she finished between 11th and 18th. Really solid IBU Cup racing already.
Richard is pretty swift on the skis, finishing ranked 7th overall in skiing amongst Juniors last season. She wasn’t quite fastest amongst French juniors though (more on that later). She has been working on getting more consistent with her shooting as well. Two years ago she was a stellar 90%. Last year she fell back just a touch to 83.3%. Regardless, with her skiing she’s been shooting well enough to compete. Her shooting times are really the only part of her competition that aren’t good. She averaged 35.9 seconds per shooting last season.
Jeanne Richard is yet another really good young French biathlete. The skiing is advancing along a path that, should be continue to follow it, would take her to amongst the fastest in the World. Last year she was already at top 30 skier on the IBU Cup. That will only be better this season. And her ranking on the Junior Cup should be pretty darn close to the top. Her shooting will hopefully find more consistency. If she isn’t hitting 90% maybe at least 85-86% would be a good goal. And fingers crossed, she’ll be shooting faster too. Richard is yet another name worth watching as she has potential to one day be another really really good World Cup athlete. For this year, I think lets look for more Junior Worlds success and hopefully a bit more extended IBU Cup run. A top 15 Overall IBU Cup finish would be excellent.
Anaelle Bondoux (19)
19 year old Anaelle Boundoux had her very first season of IBU competition last season, running primarily on the Junior Cup, but also touching IBU Cup snow for a handful of races. You might think she would have taken a little time to adjust. Nope, she finished 5th Overall on the Junior Cup. She ran nine total races. In her first race she finished 50th. After that, in her last eight, she had five top 5s including two victories and she never finished below 14th. This included finishing 4th in both Junior Worlds races she competed in, the Sprint and the Pursuit. She ended did pretty well on the IBU Cup With three top 20’s in seven races and set a career best IBU Cup finish of 13th.
Bondoux is fast. Like really fast. She finished ranked 3rd overall in skiing…on the IBU Cup. On Juniors she finished with the #1 course time rank seven times in nine races. Those other two races she finished 2nd fastest. Of course if she’s that fast and didn’t sweep up wins then the shooting must not be tremendous.
Well it actually isn’t terrible. She shot 77.7% in her Junior Cup races and 71% on the IBU Cup and she averaged over 40 seconds per shooting. It could have been much worse right?
So think of how good Bondoux can be once she shoots even better. If she could hit say 83% or 84% she’s suddenly looking like a potential Elvia Oeberg. She can compete on the skis with many of the women on the World Cup right now. She has the potential to be a real future contender. And I mean Overall Globe contender, if she can get that shooting straightened out and keep on improving on the skis as she projects. It’s going to be awhile yet, but she is absolutely a name to watch for the next few years as she works towards the World Cup.
Ocean Michelon (21)
Ocean Michelon has been splitting time fairly evenly between the Junior Cup and the IBU Cup over the last two seasons. When you look at her overall finishes you see that she finished 17th on the Junior Cup and 56th on the IBU Cup last season. If you look at the races though she actually did maybe a bit better than that. Last year on the Juniors she had three top 10’s and a victory in seven races. She didn’t race Junior Worlds but Junior Europeans was less successful. In three races she only finished a peak of 19th. On the IBU Cup she ran 10 races and had an average finish of 34th.
She was a pretty solid skier last season. She ended up ranked 8th overall in skiing amongst the Junior women last season and 22nd on the IBU Cup. That’s nothing at all to be upset about. It’s really really good!!! Her shooting has plenty of space to improve though. For most of her career she’s been hitting in the mid 70% range. Last year she hit 75% on the Junior level and 76.7% in her IBU Cup races. Her shooting times meanwhile are consistently in the low to mid 30’s.
Michelon, as with so many women on this list, has good potential. The skiing has been coming along nicely. This season she easily projects to have top 20 IBU Cup skiing. The shooting is going to be the key to her successes. If she can move that shooting towards the upper 70’s this season, and into the low 80’s the year after, that’s going to be a really good sign. Let’s just see what happens. It’s a really competitive roster so anything she can do hep boost her profile would be great.
Chloe Bened (21)
Chloe Bened, another potential Killer B for Team France, has much less racing experience than the rest of the B’s on this list. However, that limited racing she has flashed a little bit of intriguing potential. Over the last two seasons on the Junior Cup she has raced just 10 times but she has four top 10’s, all of which occurred at Junior European Championships. This includes back to back silver medals in the Sprint races in 2022 and 2023. She’s also already received four starts on the IBU Cup, all last season in Idre Fjall, and she set a career best mark of 17th.
Bened is definitely more of a skier than a shooter. So far in her career she’s hitting around 77% of her total shots. Definitely not horrible, but not what we would call a sharp shooter by any means. Her skiing though has shown some promise as she’s been regular in the top 15 in course time rank over the last 1.5 seasons. She also hasn’t really begun to work on shooting times as both seasons she has averaged a touch over 36 seconds per shooting.
The goal for Bened is going to just be continuing to race and continuing to improve. She’s got good genes for it, and any French name that starts with a B has to be good right? (Braisaz-Bouchet, Botet, Bertrand, Bened…) Let’s see another solid season, continued flashes of speed, and slightly improved shooting. That’s all I need to see.
Leonie Jeannier (21)
Leonie Jeannier is a bit of an interesting case. She raced in 2019-2020 and then didn’t start another IBU race until last year. She was a total different athlete. After an average finish of 28th in her initial season of racing, last year on the Juniors level she ran eight times and had seven top 10’s including four podiums and the bronze medal in the Junior Worlds Individual race. She even garnered two IBU Cup starts and finished 12th in both races.
During Jeannier’s time away she turned herself into a heck of a good shooter. Her first year she hit 73.8%, but when she came back last season she had that bumped up to 85%. Don’t think for a second that means she is slow though. Last year she ended up 11th overall in skiing on the Junior level. Even in her two IBU Cup races she finished 17th and 23rd on the course. I really just want to see a whole bunch more IBU Cup racing from Jeannier this season. Just like so many women on this list she has huge potential. I would love to see how she plays with more time.
Camille Coup (22)
Camille Coup on almost any other team would be a bright and shining star for the future. It is just on a team like this, with so many shining young stars, that she gets a little overshadowed. Over the last two years on the Junior Cup she has finished 14th and 23rd Overall. She’s had some good finishes with five top 10’s in that period all of which occurred against top competition at Youth Worlds and Junior European Championships.
Last season was a big year for her growth even if the results weren’t there. She ended up 14th overall in skiing amongst Juniors and her shooting was solid and stable at 82.2%, right where she’s been the last three years. Let’s just keep that growth going as she transitions up to the IBU Cup.
Men
It might seem like the women have so much talent the men can’t quite equal up. Well that might be the case in terms of total depth, but the French men are just as talented at the top. And let’s be clear, that more of a comment on how much the French women have rather than a criticism of the French men. This is going to be a really big year as the French men have new leadership under the coaching of Simon Fourcade. The top men did not enjoy the coaching staff last season so this will hopefully have them freed up and racing at their top levels. Somebody has to challenge those Vikings!
Quota: 6 Athletes to Start
The Contender
Quinton Fillon Maillet (31)
Racing during the same era as both Martin Fourcade and Johannes Thingnes Boe was either the best thing or worst thing that ever happened to Quinton Fillon Maillet and I’m honestly not sure which. Did it spur his obvious competitive and firey personality and make him the best biathlete he can be? Or has it overshadowed the fact that fairly quietly QFM is making a push for recognition among the greatest biathletes who have ever competed. His 16 wins and 52 podiums rank 8th most ever among men and he’s certainly not done yet. He should easily move to 7th this season as just one more win ties him with Frank Ullrich. He has to get to 33 to catch Sven Fischer for 6th and 38 for a tie for 5th with Emil Hegle Svendsen.
One other big part of his resume is the 2021-2022 season Overall Globe victory. That year was without a doubt the pinnacle of his career as he won 10 races and had 16 podiums in 26 races which included 3 solo Olympic medals and 2 relay medals. It was a dominant year from start to finish. Last year though, was definitely a step backwards. Maybe it was the coaching turmoil. Maybe it was added expectations and time demands coming off of the 21-22 season. Maybe there was an underyling injury that a guy like QFM would never complain about. Regardless he dropped down to 0 wins (JT Boe ate them all up) and more alarmingly just two podiums. He ended up missing a handful of races in the middle of the season, but to his enormous credit he didn’t shut it down, but raced all the way through Oslo and finished 8th Overall.
The normally top notch speed for QFM just wasn’t there all season. He started out 18th and 21st in course time ranks for the first two races of the season and never seemed to find his legs all year. He certainly wasn’t slow. He still ranked 11th overall in skiing. However, the prior four years ranked 7th, 2nd, 4th, and 2nd. The good thing is that he didn’t lose a single bit off of his shooting. He hit 88.6%, which was exactly the same as he hit during his Overall Globe winning year. He is one of the most remarkably consistent shooters. His overall shooting hasn’t budged more than a single point in five years.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2018-2019 | 86.3 | 91.2 | 88.8 | 29.3 |
| 2019-2020 | 88.8 | 85.9 | 87.4 | 27.2 |
| 2020-2021 | 84 | 90.5 | 87.6 | 26.7 |
| 2021-2022 | 86.7 | 90.5 | 88.6 | 27.9 |
| 2022-2023 | 88.3 | 88.9 | 88.6 | 24.9 |
Can QFM get all the way back to the top? Well here’s the thing, JT Boe has made a decisive argument as one of the greatest of all time. So QFM could very well run a great year and still not win a second Overall Globe. Even if he’s top 3 in skiing, shoots 89% it might not be enough. I would bet lots of money that a competitive guy like QFM will be right in the mix this year. I bet he’s going head to head and using all the tricks up his sleeve. Watching him going head to head is really a treat for any biathlon fan. I really hope we have him back!
The Enigma
Emilien Jacquelin (28)
Emilien Jacquelin is, and I use this word probably too much, one of the most intriguing biathletes there is. He has all of the talent in the world. He mixes it up and races unlike anybody else. He takes the field head on and does his own races no matter what anybody else is doing. And when he’s on, he’s one of the best. That 2021-2022 Overall Globe win for QFM? It was Emilien Jacquelin wearing the Yellow bib at the end of the 1st trimester.
He also has been an open book on his struggles with depression. It’s evident sometimes when he ejects halfway through a bad race. It’s so frustrating as a fan, but I can’t imagine what it must be like living with that. I myself have had my moments of depression but fortunately I’ve had a good care team and a loving wife and family and I’m doing great. But to struggle like that…I feel for him. Last season it got to the point where he stepped away. If anybody doesn’t know it yet, go look up his instagram page for his photography. It’s top notch stuff and he put up a lot last year when he wasn’t racing.
He appears to be all in on biathlon now as the 2023-2024 season approaches. As an athlete Jacquelin is a top notch skier who, a bit like teammates Simon and Braisaz-Bouchet, has been at times boom or bust with the rifle. It’s usually those bad shooting days when he seems to mentally check out of a race. Even if you don’t see the races you can look back at his realbiathlon page and figure out which ones are the ones he checked out on. It’s where he randomly has a course time of 38th or 43rd. Fortunately it doesn’t happen that often as from 19-20 through 21-22 he ranked 4th, 8th, and 6th overall in skiing. Last year was just 12th but I’m not really going to focus on that too much for the same reasons as we discussed above. Shooting is where he makes his money. For his top seasons of shooting he hit just over 87% before slipping to 82.5% in 21-22 and just 78.8% in his abbreviated racing last year.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2018-2019 | 85.7 | 77.7 | 81.7 | 27.4 |
| 2019-2020 | 90.6 | 83.8 | 87.2 | 25.6 |
| 2020-2021 | 89.5 | 85.2 | 87.4 | 26.5 |
| 2021-2022 | 87 | 78 | 82.5 | 27.9 |
| 2022-2023 | 86.7 | 70.8 | 78.3 | 26.3 |
It’s hard to say which is more important for Jacquelin, the shooting or the mental game. For life of course it’s the mental game. For biathlon…it probably also is the mental game. When he’s out there playing with the competition he’s at his best. That’s also when he skis fastest and races well. For watching Jacquelin just watch his face and his body language. That’s the whole story for him.
The World Cup
This next group doesn’t have the ceiling (this year) that the two above have. Let’s be clear I think Eric Perrot has a very very high ceiling, I think it will just be 2-3 years before he nears it. I do think, though, that this group will by and large spend most of the season on the World Cup.
Fabien Claude (28)
Over the last two seasons Fabien Claude has become, hands down, one of my favorite male biathletes to pull for. I don’t know what it is exactly but I just love watching him race. It’s something about how he doesn’t have the same top end talents that his teammates have, but he’s always always fighting so dang hard. And those occasions where he ends up battling alongside his brother(s) are so much fun!
Coming on the heels of a really good IBU Cup run with Overall finishes of 7th, 4th, and 11th over a four year stretch, he moved to the World Cup more or less full time in 2019-2020. Over the last four seasons Claude has been slowly moving his way up the World Cup rankings too. After back to back 19th place Overall finishes he moved up to 14th in 2021-2022 before just cracking the top 10 last year.
Interestingly he made those moves up the Overall ranking while also failing to reach the podium in either of the last two years after doing it three times in his first two seasons. What changed though, is he built a really solid floor under his performance. Over the last two seasons he has never finished outside the top 40 and last season he had 19 of his 25 races in the top 20. So even though no new best career finishes, he is performing better and more consistently.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2020-2021 | 79.3 | 80.7 | 80 | 29.3 |
| 2021-2020 | 78 | 80 | 79 | 27.6 |
| 2022-2021 | 83.1 | 76.4 | 79.7 | 26 |
| 2023-2022 | 87.6 | 79.5 | 83.6 | 27.3 |
What has come along the most has been his shooting. Ever since coming to the World Cup he’s been a top 20 skier. The shooting though seemed stuck in the high 70’s. In 22-23 though he got his overall shooting up to 83.6% with a really nice 87.6% prone shooting. That was good enough for 47th overall with the rifle. Not amazing but a huge improvement from where he had been, finishing from 92nd to 103rd the prior seasons.
What’s the future and ceiling for Fabien Claude? It’s all about the rifle. Over the last many years now we have established evidence that Fabien Claude is a good skier. If he shoots 85% or above he’s on the way for a solid top 10 Overall. If he’s back to the high 70’s or around 80% that will slip backwards a bit towards the mid teens. Watch the standing shooting. If that’s up then we’re in for a great year
Eric Perrot (22)
Eric Perrot is just 22 years old and he’s already accumulated 30 career World Cup starts. Even for somebody that has already been compared to the great Martin Fourcade that’s a ton of starts so early in his career. It isn’t without success either. Even in his first full World Cup season he had a top 10, finishing 6th in the 2022 Ruhpolding Sprint, on his way to 68th Overall. Last year was even better. He had six top 30’s, a dramatic increase from just the one the year prior, two top 10’s, and his first career podium, finishing 3rd in the Mass Start in Oestersund. It’s been really nice to see him raising both his ceiling and his floor simultaneously.
So far in his career Perrot has been primarily had success on the backs of his skis. He’s been pretty strong but he hasn’t exactly been blowing people off the snow. Racing as a Junior, which he last did in 2020-2021, he ended the season ranked 21st overall in skiing. Last year as a 21 year old on the World Cup he was 26 overall on skiing. Again, as a 21 year old. The skiing potential is there for sure.
| Prone % | Standing % | Total % | Shooting Time | |
| 2021-2022 | 84 | 81 | 82.5 | 32.2 |
| 2022-2023 | 82.5 | 84.2 | 83.3 | 27.2 |
The shooting has been okay but hasn’t broken through yet. He usually shoots in the low 80’s. For example, last season he had an 83.3% total hit rate which is in line with his career history. He has pretty equal prone and standing splits as well. The baseline performance is good. It’s all about moving it upwards from the low 80’s to the mid to high 80’s. Honestly, if his ski potential develops as he is on track for, then he’ll really only need to his 86-87% or so to be a very strong contender. Last season he did make a dramatic improvement in his shooting speed though, going from 32.2 seconds per shooting to 27.2 seconds. A five second drop and he actually marginally increased his shooting accuracy.
Eric Perrot has all sorts of potential. One of these years very soon he’s going to turn all of that potential into consistent top 10’s. It might even be this season.
Antonin Guigonnat (32)
Antonin Guigonnat has been the unsung man on the French team for several years now. In American sports we would call him a “lunch pail guy.” He comes and does a solid job every time out there. He rarely is going to be in the spotlight but that doesn’t stop him from giving solid effort every race. Over the last six seasons, when he established himself on the World Cup, his Overall ranks are as follows: 10, 11, 27, 20, 23, and then last season 20th. Every season he’s good for a whole bunch of top 20’s, a handful of top 10’s, and maybe one top 5 or podium every year or so.
Guigonnat is a solid all around biathlete and his performance has really not changed much year to year over the last six seasons. Pretty much every year he ends up somewhere between 20th and 30th in skiing and hits somewhere in the mid to low 80’s. Even his shooting times have stayed relatively steady in that period. His shooting time ranks have only gotten lower because the rest of the field caught up to him.
It’s probably too much to expect at this stage of his career a significant improvement. He’s just been so steady for so long. That’s probably both his strength and his weakness in holding a spot on the World Cup. It’s a strength because he’s dependable and you know what to expect. It’s a weakness because the potential feels maxed out by now. and you may want to give a spot to a younger man like Oscar Lombardot or a number of men listed below, because they still seemingly have more room to grow and improve.
Coming on Up
The French men, just like the women, have a huge roster of young men fighting their way through the IBU Cup. On many other nations, with the exception of Norway, several of these men would already be getting some regular World Cup run. As it is, barring injury to one of the top men, or a demotion to maybe Guigonnat, only 1-2 of them at a time will get to make World Cup starts.
Oscar Lombardot (23)
First up, both on this list and with a run at the World Cup in Oestersund, is Oscar Lombardot. The 23 year old is coming off of his best season to date as he finished 9th Overall on the IBU Cup. The crazy part about that is he was starting on the World Cup from Pokljuka through the end of the season. On the IBU Cup he 9 top 15 finishes in 11 starts including two 2nd place finishes. On the World Cup he made another ten starts and didn’t have quite the same level of finish, with just three to 10’s.
Lombardot has always been a solid skier, but last season he took it to another level. He ended up ranked 5th overall in skiing on the IBU Cup and finished the year as the fastest non-Norwegian, which is actually quite notable. He was top 10 in course time rank, if not top 5, every single race. Even on the World Cup he wasn’t getting left behind as he finished 29th overall in skiing. Just like Perrot, Lombardot has already shown the ski speed needed to compete on the World Cup. For now it’s about finding the shooting. For most of his Juniors career he was shooting in the low 70’s. Over the last two years though he’s brought that up to the low 80’s including hitting exactly 80% on the World Cup last season.
Can Lombardot take his early run on the World Cup and run with it? It’s all going to come down to if he can shoot. The ski speed is already good enough to compete for top 20’s if not better. He finished ranked exactly 1 spot behind Niklas Hartweg. The difference is Hartweg shot 93.3% last season. I don’t expect that from Lombardot at all. But the point is he doesn’t have to be faster, he just needs to shoot better. He can definitely do it!
Emilien Claude (24)
The youngest Claude brother looks like he is ready to join Florent and Fabien Claude at the highest level of biathlon competition. In his career, at just 24 years old, he already has 19 World Cup races, 59 IBU Cup, and 36 Junior Cup races. In that time he’s had 7 Junior Cup wins and 9 podiums, along with 2 more IBU Cup wins, including one in Canmore, and 4 IBU Cup podiums. It’s also worth mentioning that he had ran just three Junior races in 2020-2021, all at the World Champs, and was damn near undefeated. He won bronze in the Individual followed by back to back golds in Sprint and Pursuit. That was actually the second time he’s gone back to back Sprint/Pursuit gold at Worlds after he did it at Youth Worlds in 2017. At times like that he’s been absolutely tremendous including finishing 5th Overall as a Junior in 2017-2018 and 6th Overall on the IBU Cup in 2021-2022.
Last season he appeared to have made the jump to the World Cup, but after starting every weekend through Ruhpolding he went back to the IBU Cup for the balance of the season. Even in run though he was still solid, averaging a 38th place finish and he finished 24th or 25th in four of his last five races on the World Cup.
Emilien Claude, like fellow young Frenchmen Perrot and Lombardot, has started to show the ski speed that he will need to compete on the World Cup. Last season he ranked 43rd on the World Cup in ski speed and just 34th on the IBU Cup. The year prior though, he was up to 12th in skiing on the IBU Cup before last seasons setback. That’s more in line with what we’ve come to expect from him.
The shooting has been similarly up and down. He’s had full seasons where he’s been close to or even above 90% shooting. However, he seems to follow that up by sliding back to the mid to low 80’s. For what it’s worth he was in the low 80’s both IBU Cup and World Cup last season.
It almost feels like the key for Emilien Claude isn’t about his skiing or his shooting. Instead its going to be about finding consistency. Can he consistently find that top notch ski speed? Can he consistently find that solid shooting? If he can he’s a solid World Cup athlete. Not just a consistent starter, but able to compete for a top 25 Overall slot.
Remi Broutier (23)
Remi Broutier is not one of the younger French biathletes that gets a ton of attention. Usually we hear more about Perrot, Lombardot and Claude. (Or Jacques Jefferies but maybe that has to do with a certain podcast…just seeing if you all are reading!). Broutier though put together a really solid year last year, finishing 10th on the IBU Cup. It was pretty interesting because he had just two top 10’s in his entire Juniors career. Last year on the IBU Cup he had two top 10’s to go with 11 top 20’s as he put together a consistent and solid year from start to finish. It wasn’t flashy, just consistent and solid.
He just keeps getting better and better as a skier. In his last season as a Junior he ended up 13th overall in skiing. On the IBU Cup 18th in skiing running over 5% faster than average. That would translate to a little faster than average on the World Cup. He’s looking pretty solid in that aspect. Shooting though is another story. Every year it has gotten a little bit worse. Last year his overall shooting was down to 76.4%. For him to have the success he wants to have Broutier is going to have to get that turned around. As I’ve said before for many athletes above, the skiing is there, and the shooting is going to be the part that has to get better.
Theo Guiraud Poillot (21)
Theo Guiraud Poillot has only made four IBU Cup starts, but he still belongs on this list for now. Last season, his second on the Junior Cup was fairly successful as he finished all the way up 7th Overall. He had 10 starts last season and secured his first career IBU victory at any level with a Super Sprint win in Haanja by 4 seconds over Benjamin Menz. At Junior Worlds he was very steady with finishes of 12th, 14th, and 13th.
Poillot is a solid skier. He finished 15th overall in skiing amongst the Junior men and he was regularly top 10 in course time rank. He averaged 8.1% faster than average on the Junior Cup which projects well to his skiing for the IBU Cup at the very least, and longer term if he should continue to develop. His shooting was decent hitting 79.3% overall with a slight preference for prone. Poillot still likely needs some seasoning before his World Cup debut but the pieces are there for him to be a solid biathlete.
Jacques Jefferies (21)
Young Jacque Jefferies, one of the cohosts of the French biathlon podcast Balles de Pioche, has so far in his career been primarily a Junior Cup athlete. Just two full seasons of racing in addition to the 2021 Youth World Championships totals up to 18 Junior Cup races. Over that stretch he has five top 10’s and two podiums including a silver medal in the Pursuit at last season’s Junior European Championships. The end result for the season was 9th Overall.
Jefferies has flashed some ski potential over the last few seasons. This past season he was 29th overall in skiing with the Juniors but the year prior he was 18th in skiing. 12 times in those 18 Junior races he’s finishes top 10 in course time rank. He has gotten stronger and stronger as a shooter each season though. His total shooting each of the last three seasons has been 68%, 77.5% and 82%.
Jefferies has flashed the ski speed. The shooting is definitely on a steep incline. I like the direction this is going. He probably is looking at a solid year of split Juniors and IBU Cup racing. If he can get the skiing from two years ago line up with the shooting from last year that will be a solid season. However, I’m sure he wouldn’t be upset if he surpassed both his best shooting and skiing. Definitely possible!
Paul Fontaine (23)
When you see a 23 year old man on a team like the French you are going to assume that he has several seasons of competition already. Fontaine though has just one short year of Juniors and then last year on the IBU Cup. In his Junior Cup season he ran six races, all Junior European Championships and Junior Worlds and actually had solid success. At Junior Europeans he was 5th in the Sprint and actually won gold in the Pursuit. Then at Worlds he went 32nd, 26th, and 13th. Last year on the IBU Cup he finished 47th Overall. Along the way he did have an 8th place Sprint along with two other top 20’s. His average finish of 35th actually tells a pretty good story for how his season went.
Fontaine is an okay skier, running about 4.3% faster than average on the snow, which was good enough for 29th overall in skiing. His shooting is decent hitting about 76.8% last season after 83% in his Junior Cup year. It’s still too early too say where Fontaine appears to be headed as a biathlete. He’s had some really good races, and with a program like the French he could definitely emerge as a World Cup level biathlete any year. I’m hoping that we see that shooting bounce back towards his Junior levels shooting as well as continued ski progression.
Sebastian Mahon (24)
A couple of seasons ago Sebastian Mahon looked like he was on the path towards an almost assured spot on the World Cup. In his first three Junior Cup seasons he had overall finishes of 16th, 15th, and then 6th. He finished in the top 10 in 1/3 of his Juniors races but never quite made the podium. Since graduating out of Juniors to the IBU Cup though, he’s been unable to secure consistent starts on the IBU Cup racing just ten times over the last two seasons. In the 21-22 season he did have some success, racing six times, all top 20 with a season’s best of 5th. However last year in four races he had a best of 28th.
When he was at his best on the Junior level he was hitting his shots a solid rate in the mid 80’s, with a peak of 86.2% in 2019-2020. For the most part on the IBU Cup though he’s been stuck in the mid 70’s. In fact, the key to his 21-22 success was that he actually was shooting pretty well running an 84.4% hit rate. His skiing performance has also been deteriorating over the last two seasons. I’m not sure if he is going to be able to recapture that type of success he had as a Junior but if he’s going to the skiing has to turn around immediately. If he can do that plus shoot like he did in 21-22 then he’s got a chance. With this much competition though, he needs to do it pretty quick.
Ambroise Meunier (24)
Ambroise Meunier is an interesting biathlete in that he has just four Junior up races but has 48 IBU Cup races. I just don’t remember seeing that many French athletes have such little Juniors racing and then see consistent IBU Cup starts. Regardless, he’s using them well. Every IBU Cup season he’s improved and last year he finished 18th Overall, easily his best. He had a solid season with three top 10s and eight top 20’s and a season (and career) best finish of 6th. In fact he had 9 of his 10 best career IBU Cup finishes.
Not surprisingly, Meunier has been getting a little bit better every season. His average skiing vs. the average was up to 4% faster than average. That was good enough for 30th overall in skiing easily his best of his career. He his 78% of his shots last season with a definite prone preference. This was above where he was to start his career but down from 83% a year prior. Meunier is clearly putting in the work. I’m optimistic that he’ll continue to improve. He might not have the highest ceiling but don’t doubt somebody that works this hard!
Juniors
And now we get to the men who are the youngest of the bunch. These guys who run completely on the Junior Cup and nobody would be surprise. Even still they’ll probably still get some IBU Cup races. We’ll try to be brief, but we’re not good at that!
Valentin Lejeune (20)
I love a name like Valentin for a French athlete. Just perfect. Valentin Lejeune is a 20 year old Junior Cup athlete who is still waiting for his big breakout. He’s run 16 races and does have five top 10’s including three at the 2021 Youth Worlds. He profiles a bit more as an all around biathlete, or maybe better put as the ‘jack of all trades but master of none’ type. He’s solid on the skis running 5.6% faster than average, but from the Junior level that doesn’t project very high going forward. On the optimistic side he did hit 80.7% last season. Hopefully we’ll see the both skiing and shooting on the upswing this season.
Lou Thievent (20)
Over two seasons Lou Thievent has just 13 starts across the IBU Cup and Juniors. In his five Juniors starts, two in 19-20 and three last season, he has a best of 12th last season. The IBU Cup he had seven starts, all last year, and he had five finishes of 25th or better including three top 15’s. Thievent is unusual amongst his French colleagues in that he is a far stronger shooter than skier. He hit 89% last season in his IBU Cup starts last year. He only was running about 3% faster than average though. For Thievent we just need to see more of him. The strong shooting gives him a relatively high floor. If he can bring the skiing along that would be amazing. He doesn’t need to be fast like Lombardot, just a little bit.
Edgar Geny (20)
Edgar Geny is a pure Junior, running 13 races over the last three seasons, all of which are on the Juniors. He started right out in his career winning a silver medal in the Individual at Youth Worlds. Since then he has just two more top 10’s. Geny is the opposite of Thievent. He’s a really good skier but he just doesn’t shoot well. He’s usually top 15 if not top 10 in course time rank. Unfortunately his shooting just isn’t good, and is trending in the wrong direction. Last year he hit just 65%. He absolutely has to get that going in the other direction starting this season.
Timothee Grunewald (22)
Timothee Grunewald has one of the most intriguing resumes I’ve ever seen. He’s 22 and he has just two IBU level races. Last year he raced two races in Obertilliach, the 2nd weekend of the Junior Cup. He finished 11th in the Individual and 10th in the Sprint. Then we just didn’t see him again. He shot really well hitting 86.7%. And he had course time ranks of 26th and 9th. Let’s see what happens with him I guess.
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