France ended the first week of the Winter Olympics with 10 medals – four of them gold, five silver and one bronze – as scandals over credit card fraud and alleged abuse failed to derail its athletes.
French biathlete Julia Simon emerged from a conviction for fraudulently using a teammate's credit card to cover herself in glory with two Olympic titles during the first week of competition at the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo in northern Italy.
Simon, 29, was given a three-month suspended prison sentence and fined €15,000 in October 2025 for racking up €2,000 on the cards of fellow athlete Justine Braisaz-Bouchet and a team physiotherapist from 2021 to 2022.
Four months on from her brush with the law, she anchored the squad of Eric Perrot, Quentin Fillon Maillet and Lou Jeanmonnot to the top prize in the mixed relay.
On Wednesday, Simon took the individual honours in the women's 15km individual event, just ahead of Jeanmonnot. Braisaz-Bouchet finished 80th.
“I have a lot of pleasure, when I train, when I race, when I compete, so it's the most important thing for me,” Simon said.
“I know I had a goal. I put all my energy in this goal, in myself. It was difficult over many months but I'm really proud of myself and today was a perfect race for me.”
Fillon Maillet, 33, claimed the men's 10km sprint on Friday to take his 2026 tally up to two golds. His total haul from three Winter Olympic Games now stands at seven medals.
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Skating scandals
Meanwhile, skater Guillaume Cizeron landed a second gold in the ice dancing amid recriminations from former partner Gabriella Papadakis.
He and Papadakis won the event at the Beijing Games in 2022, four years after claiming silver in South Korea.
But on the eve of the 2026 Olympics, Papadakis published a book in which she claimed she had been under Cizeron's "control" during their partnership, which ended following their fifth world title in 2022.
Cizeron, 31, has denounced the book as "defamatory" and announced that he was "handing over the case to lawyers".
The flurry failed to distract Cizeron and new partner Laurence Fournier Beaudry, who is herself fresh from a troubled former pairing.
The 33-year-old Canadian-born skater – who was granted French nationality last November – was on the lookout for a new teammate after her partner on and off the ice, Nikolaj Sorenson, was accused of sexual misconduct and banned by Canadian skating chiefs.
Friends since a skating camp in Germany while they were teenagers, Cizeron and Fournier Beaudry wowed the judges at the Forum di Milano. The duo narrowly beat the American world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates into second.
As he soaked up the plaudits, Cizeron told French broadcaster Franceinfo he had not yet decided whether he would seek a hat trick of golds at the next Winter Olympics in the French Alps four years from now.
"Laurence and I came together only a year ago because of our love for the sport and our affection for each other," said Cizeron.
"We've had these Winter Olympic Games in Milan as the target for the last year and we've only been thinking about that," he added. "It's a bit soon to be talking about the 2030 Games in France. But we'll think about it."
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Silver skier
Of the six other French medals, Mathis Desloges bagged two silvers in cross-country skiing – one in the men's 10km interval start free and the other in men's 10km+10km skiathlon.
In both instances, the 23-year-old – who is appearing at his first Winter Olympics – finished behind Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo from Norway.
Klaebo, 29, also won the men's sprint classic to increase his medal collection to eight golds.
The victory made him only the fourth Winter Olympian to achieve the feat. Before the Games end on 22 February, Klaebo will vie in the men’s relay, men’s team sprint and 50k marathon with a chance to stand alone.
