“That could have ended badly”
Biathlon world champion almost escapes an accident
22.02.2025 – 8:56 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
The French women’s season celebrated Olympic gold on Saturday. But the celebrations in the final round suddenly became dangerous.
With more than a minute ahead of Norway, the French women’s season won the gold medal at the biathlon World Cup in Lenzerheide. The competition in Switzerland is firmly in French hands. In the medal mirror, France clearly leads to second place in front of Norway with six gold medals (three times gold).
But as safe as the relay gold looked like on Saturday, the quartet around the final runner Julia Simon escaped an accident. Because Simon was almost hit by a falling fence on the final round. The 28-year-old gave celebrating fans on the edge of High Fives. Some leaned forward so far that the fence added and broke. Several fans fell into the snow.
Simon was able to avoid this. “Everything went very quickly. People fell on the track, but it was okay. I rose over a flag and continued the race,” said Simon after the Swedish newspaper “Aftonbladet”.
The Norwegian ex-winter athlete and TV expert Torgir Bjørn became a little clearer. “Yellow card to the organizers. That could have ended badly,” he said on the TV station NRK.
The overturned gang also noticed other biathletes. So the Swede Anna Magnusson said: “You have to look at this (the organizers, editor’s note). It would have been a scandal if it had influenced the result.” Her compatriot Hanna Öberg added diplomatically: “It wasn’t the most stable fence. But everything went well again and I hope that all spectators are doing well.”