Julia Simon won a gold medal in biathlon at the Winter Olympics on Wednesday. Her victory comes less than four months after she was found guilty of stealing a teammate’s credit card.
She shushed her haters in Italy!
One of the greatest biathletes of all-time initially received a lengthy suspension from the sport that would not give her the opportunity to participate at the Olympics. The French Skiing Federation later changed its ruling and allowed her to compete.
Who is Julia Simon?
At 29 years old, Simon hails from Albertville, France. She has previously claimed 10 world titles and won a silver medal in the mixed relay at the Beijing Games in 2022.
This was her third time on the Olympic roster after being selected as an alternate in 2018.
Julia Simon led the French mixed relay team to victory as the anchor on Sunday. Her individual performance in the women’s 15km on Wednesday was just as strong, if not even more so.
Competitors ski five three-kilometer laps and stop four times at the shooting range. They alternate between the prone and standing positions at each rang. Each miss on the range adds a hefty one-minute penalty so precision is a priority. The winner is decided by the lowest overall time.
Simon missed only one shot on the shooting range and powered herself to the gold medal with a strong ski on the track. She claimed gold with a time of 41:15.6, nearly one minute ahead of her teammate.
The impressive performance cements Simon as an all-time great French biathlete.
She stole a teammate’s credit card.
As dominant as Julia Simon has been at the Olympics, she was not initially supposed to be there. The 29-year-old was found guilty of theft and credit card fraud at the end of October.
Simon repeatedly used the credit card of her teammate, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, and that of a separate staff member of the French team to make online purchases that totaled more than $2,300. She admitted to the bizarre behavior and apologized to the victims but she also claimed ignorance.
“I can’t explain it. I don’t remember doing it. I can’t make sense of it,” Simon said during the trial.
The French court initially gave her a three-month suspended prison sentence. The French Ski Federation later handed down a six-month ban from the sport as well as a $34,600 fine that will be paid to the federation and used to support the training of young biathletes.
However, the French Ski Federation wants to win so it suspended her ban by five months— beginning on Nov. 7. The suspensions to her ban and to her prison sentence allowed Simon to compete in Italy.
She won an individual gold medal on Wednesday and shushed her haters as she crossed the finish line.
It was a savage gesture. Simon heard all of the critics and silenced them with a win.