Florent Claude

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

Florent Claude

Florent Claude in 2023
Personal information
Nationality	Belgian
Born	(1991-11-11) 11 November 1991 (age 33) Remiremont, France[1]
Sport
Sport	Biathlon
Medal record Men's biathlon Representing  France (up to 2016) Representing  Belgium (from 2017) Junior World Championships 2012 Kontiolahti 10 km sprint 2012 Kontiolahti 4 × 7.5 km relay Youth World Championships 2009 Canmore 3 × 7.5 km relay 2010 Torsby 3 × 7.5 km relay

Biography

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

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

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

World Championships

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

• 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]