Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, double Olympic silver medalist in Beijing a year ago, will compete in the last races of her career in Oslo this weekend. The French biathlete announced on Wednesday that she would retire at the end of the season, at the age of 30.
“It will be my last laps in Oslo. It’s time for me to hang up the rifle and the skis, “wrote the biathlete on Instagram in a message accompanying a drawing representing her alongside the mascots of the three Winter Olympics in which she participated, from Sochi in 2014 to Beijing in 2022. , passing through Pyeongchang in 2018.
Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, who gave birth to a little girl, Emie, at the end of 2019, has three Olympic medals to her name, two in silver (individual and mixed relay in 2022) and one in bronze (women’s relay in 2018). She also has seven world medals, three won individually, silver in the sprint, bronze in the pursuit in 2021 in Pokljuka (Slovenia), and bronze in the sprint in 2017 in Hochfilzen (Austria), in addition to four relays won.
All he needs is an international title. It was this goal of world gold that had motivated the extension of her career after the 2022 Olympics. She had not gone far in February, when she had tackled the last standing shot of the mass start in Oberhof in the lead. But she ended up finishing 4th.
Like Roeiseland and Herrmann
“I am happy to have given myself the means to succeed and to have remained true to my values throughout my career,” she continues. Proud to have held on in difficult times, proud to have dared, to have made choices, to have assumed them. »
Since his World Cup debut in 2013, Chevalier-Bouchet has made 259 starts (before the last three races in Oslo). She won once: in pursuit at Hochfilzen in 2016. She still climbed on four individual podiums over the winter.
Like the French, the Norwegian star Marte Olsbu Roeiseland and the German Denise Herrmann-Wick announced on Tuesday that they would end their careers at the end of winter.