Uproar in the French team
“This is very close to treason.”
November 15, 2025 – 4:53 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Within a few months, the French biathlon team was rocked by two sensitive incidents. This doesn’t go unnoticed internationally either.
In view of the credit card affair involving Julia Simon and Justine Braisaz-Bouchet as well as an accusation of manipulation against Jeanne Richard, the French biathlon team is exposed to massive criticism. Now former athletes Mona Brorsson and Björn Ferry have also expressed their horror at the events.
“This comes very close to treason,” Brorsson criticized biathlete Simon on the Swedish broadcaster SVT. The 29-year-old admitted weeks ago that she had stolen credit cards from her teammate Braisaz-Bouchet and a member of the support staff and used them for her own purposes. The criminal court then imposed a three-month suspended sentence and a fine of 15,000 euros. She was also excluded from the team for the time being.
The accusation of manipulation against Jeanne Richard exacerbated Brorsson’s anger at the French team. According to consistent media reports, Richard is said to have hidden the rifle of her colleague Océane Michelon before a race. “This is completely unbelievable. This is as close to a betrayal of one’s own teammates as an athlete can get,” said Brorsson. It’s a competition, “but that’s unforgivable. I don’t understand how they can stay together. I could never have forgiven that.”
Björn Ferry, 2010 Olympic champion, spoke of unbelievable behavior and said: “I don’t understand how she can continue to be part of the team.”
He accused Simon of being a kleptomaniac, a person who has an uncontrollable urge to steal things. “But the other thing is worse. They say the problem is solved, but how do you actually solve something like that?” asked Ferry. After all, it’s “one of the meanest things you can do. It’s like a cross-country skier putting glue on his skis or unscrewing a binding,” the Swede continued.