Florent Claude (born 11 November 1991) is a French-born Belgian biathlete.

Florent Claude
Florent Claude in 2023
Personal information
NationalityBelgian
Born (1991-11-11) 11 November 1991 (age 32)
Remiremont, France[1]
Sport
SportBiathlon
Medal record
Men's biathlon
Representing  France (up to 2016)
Representing  Belgium (from 2017)
Junior World Championships
Silver medal – second place 2012 Kontiolahti 10 km sprint
Bronze medal – third place 2012 Kontiolahti 4 × 7.5 km relay
Youth World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2009 Canmore 3 × 7.5 km relay
Silver medal – second place 2010 Torsby 3 × 7.5 km relay

Biography edit

Florent Claude is originally a French biathlete, born in Remiremont, in the Vosges, in 1991. He has a Master in physical training from the Université Grenoble Alpes. Due to a lack of chances to compete at the highest biathlon level in France, he relocated to Belgium, where he formed a team with Michael Rösch, another naturalized experienced biathlete (Olympic gold medal in the relay in 2006 with Germany). In June 2017 Claude acquired the Belgian nationality.[2] His brothers Fabien Claude and Emilien Claude are also biathletes and compete for France.

In 2018, Claude competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics with Michael Rösch as the first Belgian Olympic biathletes ever.[3] Their relay teammate Thierry Langer also competed but as a cross-country skier, not a biathlete. The Belgian biathlon relay team did not qualify for the Olympics.

Biathlon results edit

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games edit

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
  2018 Pyeongchang 54th 55th 57th
  2022 Beijing 75th 84th 20th

World Championships edit

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay Single mixed relay
  2019 Östersund 32nd 71st 23rd
  2020 Rasen-Antholz 25th 34th 32nd 19th 20th
  2021 Pokljuka 19th 21st 25th 24th 22nd 21st 15th
  2023 Oberhof 27th 67th 19th 14th 17th
  2024 Nové Město na Moravě 37th 32nd 29th 22nd 8th 16th
*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.

Results edit

  • 2nd at the Junior World Championships in the 10 km sprint event (2012)
  • 1st (2009) and 2nd (2010) at the Junior World Championships in the relay event with the French team
  • 3rd at the French championships 2016 in the sprint and pursuit events
  • 4 titles at the Belgian championships: 3 in biathlon and one in cross-country skiing (2017)
  • 9th in the 10 km sprint event at the 2018 European Championships[4]

Notes edit

  1. ^ "Florent CLAUDE". Olympics.com. Archived from the original on 1 February 2022. Retrieved 1 February 2022.
  2. ^ Weynants, M. (7 June 2017). "Le biathlète Florent Claude est officiellement belge". RTBF. Archived from the original on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  3. ^ "Michael Rösch klaar voor Winterspelen: "Florent Claude en ik vertegenwoordigen België in biatlon"". De Standaard. Belga. 20 January 2018. Archived from the original on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  4. ^ "Florent Claude". Team Belgium. Belgian Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 6 August 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2018.

External links edit