Athlete Convicted of Fraud Wins Olympic Gold Over Victim

A biathlete who admitted ripping off her teammate's credit card just skied past her to an Olympic title. France's Julia Simon, 29, took gold in the women's 15km individual biathlon in Italy's Milan Cortina Games, while Justine Braisaz-Bouchet, the teammate she defrauded, finished a distant 80th, reports the Guardian. The AP notes that Simon is the first female French athlete to nab the gold in this event. Another French skier, Lou Jeanmonnot, claimed silver.

Simon was fined nearly $18,000 and given a three-month suspended sentence in October for using Braisaz-Bouchet's card to make more than $2,300 in purchases. She was also found to have used the credit card of the French team's physical therapist between 2021 and 2022. Simon denied wrongdoing for years, blaming identity theft, before changing course in court after photos of the card were found on her phone. "I confess the accusations but I don't remember committing them," she said at the time, adding that she was seeing a psychologist. "It's like a blackout."

The French Ski Federation handed her a largely suspended six-month ban, allowing her to compete at the Winter Games, where she had already anchored France to gold in a mixed relay race before her individual win. Simon has declined to discuss the case, saying she's focused only on her sport. After her win, she noted to Eurosport, per CNN: "What I would like now, in all honesty, is for you to leave me in peace." Braisaz-Bouchet, meanwhile, has said she became a target of online abuse once the scandal surfaced, saying she was deemed a "troublemaker" by some for ruining Simon's "great season" in 2023, when the allegations surfaced.