"Julia Simon is one of the top female biathletes in Europe, which makes her a figure of some renown on a continent where biathlon is the most popular winter sport. At the Milan Cortina Games, she lived up to her reputation, winning three gold medals and one silver. Before these Winter Games began, though, Simon made headlines for her performance in a very different field: internecine credit-card fraud."
"In 2022, while the French team was in Norway for a summer biathlon festival, Justine Braisaz-Bouchet noticed that someone had used her credit card to make more than $2,000 worth of online purchases. Getting a fraud alert is bad enough. But to make matters worse, Braisaz-Bouchet soon realized that the purchases had apparently been made by her biathlon teammate and longtime rival: Simon. Ooh la la!"
"Braisaz-Bouchet filed charges in 2023. At the same time, Simon was having a banner year that ended with her winning the Crystal Globe, which is awarded by the International Biathlon Union to the season's best biathlete. French biathlon fans didn't necessarily want to hear that their biggest star was perhaps also a thief, and Braisaz-Bouchet has said that "for many people I was the troublemaker." Silent complicity in victim-blaming is pretty jerky."
Julia Simon is a leading French biathlete who won three gold medals and one silver at the Milan Cortina Games. In 2022, while the French team attended a summer biathlon festival in Norway, teammate Justine Braisaz-Bouchet discovered more than $2,000 in unauthorized online purchases on her credit card. Braisaz-Bouchet identified Simon as the apparent user and filed charges in 2023. Simon simultaneously claimed innocence and suggested identity theft, comparing the situation to O.J. Simpson being framed. Investigators later found allegations that Simon also made unauthorized purchases with a team staffer's card. Public reaction included victim-blaming and reluctance to confront a star athlete.
Read at Slate Magazine
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