The biathlon champion is accused of credit card fraud against two people. She will be in Albertville court this Friday.
Biathlon champion Julia Simon, suspected of bank card fraud at the expense of two people, is expected Friday morning before the criminal court of Albertville (Savoie) to answer.
The most successful Frenchwoman in the history of the world championships (10 coronations, including four individually), member of the French team since 2015, the 29-year-old young woman will have to answer for theft and fraud, according to the Albertville prosecutor’s office.
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A request for adjournment, filed by the defense, will however be examined at the opening of the hearing, which could therefore be postponed to a later date, according to the prosecution.
Julia Simon is the target of two complaints for fraud filed in December 2022 and May 2023 by a member of the French team management and by one of her club and selection partners, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet.
The facts with which he is accused allegedly occurred during an internship in the summer of 2022 in Norway.
She is accused of having used their bank cards for internet purchases amounting to “Approximately 2,300 euros”according to his lawyer Mr. Christian Borel. The champion, who disputes the facts, did not wish to speak ahead of the hearing, at which she should be present, he told AFP.
“There are purchases that were made by credit card with my name on it, but today, I am also a victim of this situation. My name was used without my knowledge”declared the native of Albertville and licensed to the Saisies club in an interview with Dauphiné Libéré in August 2023.
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In the running for the 2026 Olympics
In November 2023, after the revelation of this affair in the media, Julia Simon, who for her part filed a complaint against “mentally blunted” due to the «pression» and a “been complicated”.
In a press release released in September, the French Ski Federation (FFS) recalled that the national federal disciplinary commission had been contacted very early on in this matter, and that “although it is a personal matter between two athletes”.
Whereas “only the means of investigation of the investigators and the results of the criminal investigation would make it possible to determine whether the facts alleged against Julia Simon are proven”the commission pronounced on June 1, 2023 “a stay of proceedings”. Elle “will therefore have to rule again when a judgment is rendered in this case”.
In the meantime, the FFS, which has become a civil party, adds that it has “ensure that this affair does not disrupt the individual sporting project of the athletes and the collective functioning of the team”.
The latest French winner of the big biathlon globe (2023), Julia Simon is part of the French team competing for the Winter Olympic Games, scheduled for February 6 to 22, 2026 in Milan-Cortina (Italy). However, at the end of May she suffered a sprain which disrupted her program less than a year before the Olympics.
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She ended the season in February with a historic quadruple at the Biathlon Worlds in Lenzerheide (Switzerland): gold medalist in individual and relay, mixed single relay and mixed relay.
