Émilien Claude (born 13 June 1999) is a French biathlete. Multiple Junior World Biathlon champion. Made his debut at the World Cup in 2021.[1] He represented France at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and became the first ever French youth Olympic champion in biathlon.[2]

Émilien Claude
Personal information
NationalityFrench
Born (1999-06-13) 13 June 1999 (age 25)
Épinal, Frane
Sport
CountryFrance
SportBiathlon
Medal record
Men's biathlon
Representing  France
European Championships
Silver medal – second place 2021 Duszniki-Zdrój Single mixed relay
Silver medal – second place 2022 Arber Single mixed relay
Bronze medal – third place 2023 Lenzerheide Single mixed relay
Winter Youth Olympics
Gold medal – first place 2016 Lillehammer Sprint
Junior World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2021 Obertilliach 10 km Sprint
Gold medal – first place 2021 Obertilliach 12.5 km Pursuit
Gold medal – first place 2021 Obertilliach 4 × 7.5 km Relay
Bronze medal – third place 2021 Obertilliach 15 km Individual
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Otepää 4 × 7.5 km Relay
Youth World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2017 Osrblie 7.5 km Sprint
Gold medal – first place 2017 Osrblie 10 km Pursuit
Updated on 2 April 2024

Career

edit

Émilien Claude has been competing in biathlon since 2010. He made his international debut in 2016 at the Youth World Championships in Cheile Grădiştei. Two weeks later, he competed at the Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and won the gold medal in the sprint. The following year at the 2017 World Youth Championships in Osrblie he achieved two more victories in the sprint and pursuit.

Claude made his debut in the IBU Cup at the start of the 2018/19 season in Ridnaun, where he also achieved his first good result in sprint made an 18th place. At the end of the winter, he also took part in his first European Championships. In 2019/20, The 21-year-old Émilien made his World Cup debut in Oberhof and immediately scored World Cup points with 33rd place.[3] Back in the juniors, he then made a breakthrough at the Junior World Championships, winning all races except individual race. He was therefore allowed to compete in the World Cup again at the end of the season, but did not finish in the points. He won his first race on the IBU Cup stage in January 2022 in the Brezno sprint, ahead of Norway's Sindre Pettersen and Russia's Petr Pashchenko.[4]

Personal life

edit

Claude's mother Christine was also a biathlete and finished eighth in the individual race at World Championships in 1984, his father Gilles died in January 2020 in the Canadian province of Québec when he collapsed and drowned in Lac Saint-Jean during a snowmobile excursion.[5] His older brothers Florent and Fabien are also top-level biathletes.[6]

Claude is in a relationship with the Austrian biathlete Anna Gandler.[7]

Biathlon results

edit

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

World Cup

edit
Season Overall Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start
Races Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position Points Position
2020–21 7/26 10 85th 8 75th 2 75th
2021–22 2/22 35 75th 14 76th 21 58th
2022–23 10/21 72 48th 20 39th 23 50th 17 58th 12 41st
2023–24 5/21 32 61st 31 31st 1 80th

Youth and Junior World Championships

edit

7 medals (5 gold, 2 bronze)

Year Age Individual Sprint Pursuit Relay
  2016 Cheile Gradistei 16 18th 11th 8th
  2017 Brezno-Osrblie 17 44th Gold Gold 10th
  2018 Otepää 18 10th 14th 11th Bronze
  2019 Brezno-Osrblie 19 38th 13th 8th 5th
  2020 Lenzerheide 20 12th 18th
  2021 Obertilliach 21 Bronze Gold Gold Gold

References

edit
  1. ^ "Athlete Statistics - real biathlon". www.realbiathlon.com.
  2. ^ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1.3448332
  3. ^ "Biathlon. Emilien Claude débarque en Coupe du monde : "Un super cadeau de Noël"". www.ledauphine.com.
  4. ^ "Brezno - Emilien Claude concrétise - Sports Infos - Ski - Biathlon". www.ski-nordique.net. January 15, 2022.
  5. ^ "Fabien Claude: Vater von französischen Biathleten vermisst". January 24, 2020 – via www.spiegel.de.
  6. ^ Mat, Aymeric (September 21, 2020). "Émilien Claude : "J'ai tenu à courir pour lui !"".
  7. ^ "Wintersport-Traumpaar mischt im Biathlon-Zirkus mit: Beide holten schon Junioren-Weltmeistertitel". www.merkur.de. February 24, 2024.
edit