Biathlon · International
France tops medal count at Lenzerheide Biathlon World Championships
France finished the 12-event championships with six golds and 13 medals, while Johannes Thingnes Bø set two career world-title records.
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Six golds and 13 medals for France
France led the medal count at the 2025 Biathlon World Championships in Lenzerheide, collecting six golds and 13 medals across the programme held from 12 to 23 February. The International Biathlon Union's post-championship review recorded that France won a medal in every competition except the concluding men's mass start.
Julia Simon was the only athlete to win four gold medals at these championships. She took the women's individual title and contributed to France's victories in the mixed relay, single mixed relay and women's relay. Justine Braisaz-Bouchet won the women's sprint and Eric Perrot the men's individual, completing the six French gold-medal events. Those results combined individual victories with success across three different relay formats.
Bø closes his World Championships career with records
Johannes Thingnes Bø won the men's sprint and pursuit, then joined Norway's victorious men's relay team. His career World Championships totals reached 23 gold medals overall and 12 in individual events, both records identified by the IBU. Lenzerheide was the final World Championships of his career.
In the pursuit on 16 February, Bø won in 32 minutes 26.9 seconds. American Campbell Wright took silver, 5.6 seconds behind, and Perrot bronze at 20.8 seconds. Wright had also won sprint silver the previous day, becoming the first United States athlete to win two medals at one Biathlon World Championships. Bø was the only competitor in Lenzerheide to collect three individual medals, two of them gold.
First individual titles and new medalists
Franziska Preuß won the women's pursuit for her first individual World Championships gold. Elvira Öberg achieved the same milestone in the women's mass start, while Perrot and Endre Strømsheim won their first individual world titles in the men's individual and mass start respectively.
Simon won the 15km individual in 41 minutes 27.7 seconds, ahead of Sweden's Ella Halvarsson at 37.8 seconds and France's Lou Jeanmonnot at 39.2. Öberg's 12.5 km mass-start victory came in 40:32.3, with Océane Michelon second at 9.4 seconds and Maren Kirkeeide third at 16.5. Michelon and Kirkeeide earned their first World Championships medals in that race. Other first-time medalists included Finland's Suvi Minkkinen in the sprint and Italy's Tommaso Giacomel in the individual.
Switzerland hosts the 12-event programme
Roland Arena hosted the senior Biathlon World Championships in Switzerland for the first time. The competition programme included sprint, pursuit, individual and mass-start races for women and men, plus men's and women's relays and two mixed-team disciplines. Together, those competitions supplied the 12 medal events.
The mixed relay opened competition on 12 February, the single mixed relay took place on 20 February, and the men's and women's relays followed on 22 February. Both mass starts concluded the programme on 23 February. The event brought a complete championship programme to a venue that had previously hosted other IBU competitions, with the final results delivering both national medal totals and several individual career milestones.
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