Ukraine wins first gold of Torino 2025, France makes history

The Short Individual biathlon races, 15 kilometres for men and 12.5 km for women, delivered the first set of medals at the Torino 2025 FISU World University Games on Tuesday, 14 January, in Pragelato. Ukrainian Bohdan Borkovskyi stood on top of the men’s podium, while France’s Noemie Remonnay took the women’s crown.

Borkovskyi secured the very first gold medal of the multisports event with a commanding performance. Even though he missed three of his 20 attempts over four rounds of shooting, he finished 25,5 seconds ahead of Finish Patrik Kuuttinen, who hit all of his shots. Czech Petr Hak followed less than four seconds later and took bronze with two misses.

Serhii Suprun and Vladyslav Chykar rounded out an excellent overall performance by the Ukraine men with fourth and fifth-place finishes.

“I feel perfect. This is a great result, although I made too many mistakes,” said the 20-year-old winner, who posted a time of 38:40.9.” But I felt content on the inside, which allowed me to finish so well. My goal is to improve each race, and I hope we all do well in the relay so I have the chance to stand at the medal ceremony with all my teammates together.”

Borkovskyi, who had already tasted international success at last year’s Junior World Championships in Estonia with a team medal, claimed his country’s first FISU Games gold in biathlon since Nadiia Bielkina, winner of the women’s 10 km pursuit at Almaty 2017. He is also currently 29^th in the IBU Junior Cup standings.

Sunnier conditions for the women’s race

The women’s race took place in much sunnier conditions in the afternoon. Noemie Remonnay had a race of her own and, despite two missed shots, finished in 37:37.10, almost 38 seconds ahead of 18-year-old Amelia Liszka from Poland, who was spotless at the range. Drawing more cheers from Ukrainian fans, Daryna Chalyk completed the podium.

The 23-year-old champion is now part of FISU history as the first French to capture individual gold since women’s biathlon made its Games debut in 1989.

“I just did my job, and I am verry happy with my race. I was very surprised, because I just came here to have fun and the result makes me really happy. The other French girls also did super good so let’s see what this means for the relay,” said the gold medallist.

Last season, Remonnay finished 36^th overall in the IBU Cup. She also has a team bronze medal from the 2022 Junior World Championships.

The FISU Games biathlon competition resumes on Thursday, 16 January with the Single Mixed Relay.

The take place from 13-23 January. Watch all the competitions live on . Click on the link to find the full schedule.

Written by Nejc Molan, FISU Young Reporter, Slovenia

The Young Reporters Programme exemplifies FISU’s commitment to more than sports competitions. At every FISU World University Games, a group of talented aspiring sports journalists are chosen to cover the competition.

We warmly thank FISU Official Partner Qiaodan Ltd. which provides remarkable uniforms to FISU Family and International Technical Officials since 2015. Qiaodan is a valuable partner for FISU as it continued to provide its support during the postponement of events due to the global pandemic, and recently extended the relationship with FISU up to and including 2025.