It took less than five seconds for Chauveau (23) to climb to his first World Cup podium in his fifth race in the big leagues, thanks to a 10/10 in shooting.

She finally finished fourth, 19 sec 9/10e from Sweden's Anna Magnusson, impeccable behind the rifle and victorious for the first time in the World Cup.

"I dreamed of it, but not this year. It was already a dream to race here, so to manage to have a perfect race here is even better than a dream," Chauveau smiled in tears during the awards ceremony. flowers reserved for the first six.

It wasn't the first time that day that emotion had won over her.

"When I come out of the shooting range after my standing shot, I burst into tears on the descent, she says. I knew I was in a good place and I said to myself: + There, I can play something 'extraordinary'. Then I said to myself: 'That's enough! Now, let's move on and move on!'

French biathlete Sophie Chauveau celebrates her 4th place during the sprint event of the Biathlon World Cup disputed on December 16, 2022 in Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie, France).

© JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

One kilometer from the finish - where she was in second position -, "I was starting to have really bad legs, I couldn't see very clearly, I was really afraid of falling and I lost time, continues the Haut-Savoyarde. But I had fun crazy, with the public who was on fire, it was crazy!

Three French women in the top 10

Starting with bib number 86, she was also able to count on her last lap on the sound encouragement of Julia Simon, race already completed, before being celebrated by her teammates in the finish area.

Until then, the best result of Chauveau, who is living his first season in the World Cup, was a 19th place, in pursuit at Kontiolahti (Finland) at the beginning of the month.

Her bornandin sprint is also a nice rebound, since a week ago in Hochfilzen (Austria), she had been relegated to 71st place, the fault of four out of ten missed targets, which had deprived her of pursuit .

Simon, 100% success in prone shooting since the start of the season, has been penalized by two standing faults: only fifteenth, she will start 49 seconds behind the head in pursuit on Saturday (2:15 p.m.) but still with the yellow bib.

French biathlete Julia Simon during the sprint event of the Biathlon World Cup disputed on December 16, 2022 in Grand-Bornand (Haute-Savoie, France).

© JEFF PACHOUD / AFP

His new runner-up, the German Denise Herrmann-Wick, however, came closer to 36 points (336 against 330).

Herrmann-Wick took third place in the sprint on Friday afternoon, fifteen seconds behind Magnusson and twelve seconds behind another Swede, Linn Persson.

Herrmann-Wick and Persson each completed a penalty lap.

In addition to Chauveau, two other French women have made it into the top 10: Lou Jeanmonnot, ninth (0 fault) at 35 sec, and Anaïs Chevalier-Bouchet, tenth (1 fault) at 36 sec.

The Swedes a priori the most expected, the sisters Elvira (1 fault) and Hanna Oeberg (2), ranked eighth, at 33 seconds, and 22nd, at one minute.

© 2022 AFP