He brought his girlfriend to the summit of an active volcano and got down on one knee: the biathlon star is now engaged.

The 31-year-old competed in the first leg for the French team that won the biathlon relay at the Olympics in Milano-Cortina last winter. However, after the season, he felt burnt out and decided to approach his training differently this year.

Fabien Claude has certainly broken from tradition this spring. He first ditched the French national team’s training regimen in favor of his own, choosing locations few associate with ski training: first the Maldives, then Indonesia, and now New Zealand.

It was there that Claude proposed to his beloved: at the summit of Mount Tongariro. After climbing the nearly 2000-meter-high active volcano on New Zealand’s North Island, he asked his girlfriend Maria Fabregat to marry him. She said yes.

“A love story, a future yet to be written,” Claude shared on social media.

Needed a change

After over 15 years as a biathlete and 11 seasons on the World Cup circuit, Claude felt he needed a fresh approach in preparation for next winter. He informed the French national team management that he would return in July, and then he and his girlfriend set off on an adventure.

“I decided to do things differently this year, by traveling, training differently, and recharging my batteries,” Claude explained at the beginning of May.

The French national team has now brought in Norway’s gold coach Siegfried Mazet as their head coach. He transitioned directly from the Norwegian team to the French after the Olympics in Italy.

Fabien Claude made his World Cup debut in 2016. Since then, he has won both gold and silver in the Olympics, both in the relay, respectively in Italy last winter and in Beijing 2022. He has gold, silver, and bronze in the World Championships, also from the relay. Additionally, he has 32 podium finishes in the World Cup, including ten victories.

Also Read: A total change – three months in various vacation paradises

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