Émilien Claude

Émilien Claude (born 13 June 1999) is a French biathlete. Multiple Junior World Biathlon champion. Made his debut at the World Cup in 2021. He represented France at the 2016 Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and became the first ever French youth Olympic champion in biathlon.

Career Émilien Claude has been competing in biathlon since 2010. He made his international debut in 2016 at the Youth World Championships in Cheile Grădiştei. Two weeks later, he competed at the Winter Youth Olympics in Lillehammer and won the gold medal in the sprint. The following year at the 2017 World Youth Championships in Osrblie he achieved two more victories in the sprint and pursuit.

Claude made his debut in the IBU Cup at the start of the 2018/19 season in Ridnaun, where he also achieved his first good result in sprint made an 18th place. At the end of the winter, he also took part in his first European Championships. In 2019/20, The 21-year-old Émilien made his World Cup debut in Oberhof and immediately scored World Cup points with 33rd place. Back in the juniors, he then made a breakthrough at the Junior World Championships, winning all races except individual race. He was therefore allowed to compete in the World Cup again at the end of the season, but did not finish in the points. He won his first race on the IBU Cup stage in January 2022 in the Brezno sprint, ahead of Norway's Sindre Pettersen and Russia's Petr Pashchenko.

Personal life

Claude's mother Christine was also a biathlete and finished eighth in the individual race at World Championships in 1984, his father Gilles died in January 2020 in the Canadian province of Québec when he collapsed and drowned in Lac Saint-Jean during a snowmobile excursion. His older brothers Florent and Fabien are also top-level biathletes.

Claude is in a relationship with the Austrian biathlete Anna Gandler.

Biathlon results All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

World Championships 1 medal (1 silver) EventIndividualSprintPursuitRelay 2025 Lenzerheide — — — — Silver — —

World Cup

Individual podiums

No. Season Date Location Level Race Place1 2024–25 15 January 2025 Ruhpolding World Cup Individual 2nd

Relay podiums No. Season Date Location Level Race Place Teammate(s)12024–25 17 January 2025 Ruhpolding World Cup Relay 1st F. Claude, Fillon Maillet, Jacquelin2 22 February 2025 Lenzerheide World Championships Relay 2nd F. Claude, Perrot, Fillon Maillet3 9 March 2025 Nové Město World Cup Relay 1st Lombardot, F. Claude, Fillon Maillet 42025–26 24 January 2026 Nové Město World Cup Single Mixed Relay 2nd Jeanne Richard

Youth and Junior World Championships

7 medals (5 gold, 2 bronze) Year Age Individual Sprint Pursuit Relay 2016 Cheile Gradistei 16 18th 11th 8th — 2017 Brezno-Osrblie 17 44th Gold Gold 10th 2018 Otepää 18 10th 14th 11thBronze 2019 Brezno-Osrblie 19 38th 13th 8th 5th 2020 Lenzerheide 20 — 12th 18th — 2021 Obertilliach 21Bronze Gold Gold Gold