A podium for her outing: Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet took third place in the last race of her career on Sunday, the mass start in Oslo, including Julia Simon, "mentally burnt" the day after her assured coronation in the World Cup, s is ranked fifth.
In the fog which had made her return to the hill of Holmenkollen, Chevalier-Bouchet (30 years old), three missed targets in total and leaving fourth from the firing point after the last standing shot, returned to the podium in the last round.
In the finish area, her daughter Emie and her husband were there to greet her.
"
That was great!"
she smiled.
“I was really focused, I wanted to race to the end, I fought on that last lap, I didn't give up.
You can always dream of better, of victory, but it was very demanding on the firing line, mentally you really had to be there.
Frankly, given the conditions, it's ideal, resumes the double Olympic silver medalist 2022 (
individual and mixed relay
).
The circle is complete."
After ten years in the World Cup, and more than 230 starts, Chevalier-Bouchet, 30 years old since February, says goodbye to biathlon.
To his credit, in addition to his two Olympic medals, three individual world medals and a victory in the World Cup (continuation in Nove Mesto in 2016).
Over the course of her last season, she still climbed on five individual podiums, the very last Sunday.
In front, it was the Swedish Hanna Oeberg who won, ahead of another biathlete at the start, the star Marte Olsbu Roeiseland, duly celebrated by the whole Norwegian team in the finish area.
Despite the reduced visibility, Oeberg and Olsbu Roeiseland both shot 19 out of 20, but the Swede crossed the finish line 22 seconds ahead of the Norwegian.
“Mentally, I was no longer there” concedes Julia Simon
Assured since the day before winning the World Cup for the first time in her career, Simon no longer really had the head for the competition for the last race of the winter.
Four standing shooting fouls (16/20) slid him to fifth place, nearly a minute behind Oeberg.
“
Mentally, I was no longer there, admits the 26-year-old Savoyard.
I had a big slack last night (Saturday), and this morning (Sunday), it was really hard mentally, very hard to be concentrated.
It was seen on my standing shots, I couldn't put all the intensity that biathlon requires.
Honestly, I'm just mentally burnt out.
It's still a top 6 and I'm very happy to end the season like that
.
The best happened after the race for Simon, when she received the big crystal globe of world N.1, plus the two small ones from the pursuit and the mass start, accompanied by the Marseillaise coming from the stands almost swallowed by the fog .
"
It's become real, real, it's really cool
," she savored.
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