Team Police: Sporting Mission for France

On television and on the slopes, the French Biathlon team started its season with a bang, with twelve podiums (including five victories) in the sixteen races contested on the first stages of Östersund and Hochfilzen. A fanfare start which confirms the very good health of this sport on this side of the Alps. A success due to the talent of the French athletes of course but also to the support they have to prepare in the best conditions. In a non-professional sport with high costs, it is often difficult to reach the highest level.

High-level sport, an expensive ambition

Travel, registration for competitions, on-site accommodation, technical equipment, coaches, physical and mental trainers… The list of expenses is long when you want to become a high-level athlete and stay that way. Costs which are not entirely covered by performance bonuses that are often very far from the fantasies of a collective imagination distorted by football and its eight-figure salaries. While the amount of Lou Jeanmonnot’s IBU bonuses, the highest in French biathlon for 2025, would thus amount to €115,000, the cost of a season on the circuit is estimated at €90,000 for a senior and €25,000 for a junior. The calculation is quickly done, without external help, the equation is negative.

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So, of course, the best of them benefit from private sponsors, from brands that accompany them, but these partners generally arrive once the athlete is already an accomplished champion. To become one, there is only one solution: rely on the support of the State. Obviously through the French teams, who cover a good number of expenses but also other institutional support.

Sport and army, a story that lasts

Army (Fabien Claude, Émilien Claude, Antonin Guigonnat, Éric Perrot, Paula Botet, Sophie Chauveau, Lou Jeanmonnot), Customs (Braisaz-Bouchet, Simon, Fillon-Maillet), National Gendarmerie (Océane Michelon) and more recently National Police (Jeanne Richard), all these institutions have been supporting the development of young, and not so young, biathletes for many years.

Indeed, the Army has supported athletes linked to military skiing and alpine hunters since the 1930s and the first French biathletes in the 1950s were exclusively military personnel. What followed was the famous “Bataillon de Joinville”, the first real state sport-studies which existed from 1956 to 2002, until the end of military service. Customs followed suit in the 1980s before the National Police also created its team.

Team Police, a strong commitment

Last November, this team met in Bessans in Savoie for its annual reunion. The opportunity for us to discuss with the head of the sports mission within the Police, Commissioner Rachel Costard, who told us that “if there have always been champions who were in reality police officers, support has recently been structured with the creation of “Team Police” three years ago, just before the Rugby World Cup. A team which responds in particular to a need for influence for the Police and financial security for athletes who do not “are not full-fledged police officers but contract workers who are selected from numerous applications sent by the ANS and the federations”.

Athletes who are therefore not only motivated by money but who “have common values with ours”, continues Commissioner Costard, delighted to be able to count on “extraordinary profiles, delighted to represent the police”. If the members of the team must therefore participate in their partner’s communication, the retraining mission is also taken very seriously since the athletes “can discover the whole range of police professions”, even, why not, becoming police officers themselves after their sporting career.

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Rich and varied profiles

A realistic hypothesis for Vanina Paoletti, semi-finalist in K2 kayak at the Paris Olympics and already a deputy police officer, who emphasizes that “the National Police offers us support that is monstrous, it pays us, it provides us with a framework and very interesting career prospects in retraining.” Support that changed his career since previously his funding was “100% supported by [sa] family “.

A vision shared by champions of major sports who could nevertheless be thought to be more bankable and more financially independent. Damien Joly, captain of the French swimming team at the last Olympics and vice-world champion in the 1500m short course in 2022, remembers that “despite (his) qualification for the London Olympics, I had no lasting contract and even after Rio, where I was an Olympic finalist and among the best in the world, my parents had to help me because I couldn’t live.” A difficult reality from which he will be able to escape thanks to the Police team in which “after a four-month training course in Toulouse which went really well”, he becomes a deputy police officer. Until today, these police incomes are “the only ones I had” concluded the one who was still a finalist in the 1500m at the last Paris Games…

Comments corroborated by another prestigious Olympian and also a member of Team Police, Gabriel Tual. 6^e historic performer in the 800m, European champion and Olympic finalist, he experienced these years of “get by” before exploding and recounts with a smile how, despite his status, he obtained his main personal sponsor through “the opportunism of my father, a taxi driver, who had picked up a manager of a major brand in my region”.

Today, there are 50 athletes and paraathletes who benefit from this support from the Police which allows them to concentrate on their training and to look more calmly to their future. A great program which helps to make France one of the best sporting countries in the world.