The great French Biathlete Lou Jeanmonnot receives the Légion d’Honneur today in a ceremony commemorating commemorating the Second World War victory of May 8, 1945, in the town center of Barby, which is the headquarters of the elite 13th Alpine Hunter Battalion.
Jeanmonnot has been one of nine athletes from the French Army of Champions on an immersion program with the 13th Alpine Hunter Battalion, which included obstacle courses, abseiling, ski touring and mountain shooting. Given Jeanmonnot’s love of all kind of outdoor sports, she must have had a great experience.
Jeanmonnot won last season’s overall women’s World Cup championship (the Big Globe), the sprint globe and the individual globe, and was a key member of the Olympic Gold Medal-winning French relay teams.
Jeanmonnot shot 90%, which was off her best season shooting performance of 92%, but the stat is a little misleading, because she had two races with some uncharacteristically shaky shooting; for most of the season she shot lights out.
Julia Simon shot 91% overall and a stunning 95% prone.
On the men’s side, Sturla Holm Laegreid of Norway was extraordinary. Biathlon World reports:
Sturla Holm Laegreid again dominated the men, despite dropping from 93% in 2024/25 to 92% in 25/26. Had his season not started slowly, Laegreid could have been closer to 95%. In his season-ending hot streak from Milan/Cortina to Oslo, the Norwegian hit 183 of 190 shots in eleven individual competitions for an astonishing rate of 96.3%!
That is, indeed, astonishing.
The Black Tyrone says
Felicitations au jeune soldat de l’un des premier regiment de France.