Interview with Julie Carraz and Anne-Laure Mignerey

This season some things have changed for the sympathetic biathletes Julie Carraz and Anne-Laure Mignerey. They do not train anymore with the French team. The coaches decided not to nominate the two, as they want to concentrate on the new generation and encourage a group with 4 female juniors to reach the World Cup. In addition the circumstance that the two had a season 2005/2006, rather botched, with average results in the European Cup, influenced negatively the decision of the coaches.

But that they have not lost motivation and their abilities, they proved in competition apart from Biathlon :
Julie won the title in shooting at French military championships. In the "National Terre du Tir" she won a competition and proved herself that she continues to go on her own way continuously.
Anne-Laure on the other hand placed herself this summer in a challenge of another kind : She participated in The Raid, where the teams must do some hundred kilometres in few days by foot, bicycle or boat. Exactly these small trips help her to go more concentrated and relaxed into Biathlon training. In addition she reduced the training extent a bit, in order to avoid the effect of too much training, which appeared in the past season.

A positive result of the "solitary work" of Julie could be seen in the Biathlon Summer Tour, when she could state that she is not that bad in comparison with the other girls. Based on this she could go on for the last phase of the season preparation. Anne-Laure who did not participate because of the Raid World Championships at BST, even sees therein an advantage, because according to her opinion, compare yourself with others, just turns you away from the important things, i.e. training.

Try to talk about the training you get 2 different answers. For Julie it is more difficult, because she must above all train alone and even has to solve the financial problems, that is to say their hotels during training camps and the purchase of the ammunition. Anne-Laure on the other hand finds it easier, because less pressure prevails and in addition she gets support of Team Grenoble (a Cross-Country team) that gave her even the possibility of a 3 week training camp in Scandinavia.

Julie also tells that no rivalry between them and the other girls arouse, although he and Anne-Laure want one of their places in the World Cup Team. As they do not often see each other because of the training camps of the team, they make phone calls in order to exchange the most current pieces of news all the time. Anne-Laure has the advantage to live in the same village of Delphine Peretto and Pauline Jacquin. "However, if we see us we don't talk very much about training rather about everyday things, woman things and so on. ", "AL" tells. We know the two are jolly and endearing personalities who always provide for good atmosphere. For sure, they are missed by the other girls.

In order to change this, they would like to qualify for the World Cup. Julie goes even so far and sets herself the aim to participate at World Championships in Antholz. As much as possible races she wants to do in order to achieve her big goal. Anne-Laure hopes simply to have "much fun". She would have that, if she succeeds to confirm the good shooting results of her training sessions also in competition. In addition she hopes to increase her best World Cup result (place 22) and run again a relay for France.

Perhaps also contribute to repeat the relay victory of Oberhof from the previous year …

For the end Julie informs us about a negative thing : If she does not get along as hoped in the winter and she spends "the whole season only in the European Cup, I will end my career."
As we would regret this a lot, we wish much, much luck to Julie and also Anne-Laure, who seems slightly more optimistically in the interview, and we hope to see both next time back in the "World Cup" !

Girls, we believe in you and cross all our fingers that the selection races go on very good ! You'll do it !! Anne Gassner/Karolin Hemp in November 2006