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With just six months to go before the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Paul Mehdi Benhayoun is fine-tuning his training on the snowy slopes of the Alps. At 32, the French-Moroccan athlete is chasing an unprecedented goal: to become the first African biathlete to compete in the Winter Games, representing Morocco in a sport that remains virtually unknown across the continent, as he told Le Parisien.
Born in Reims to a French mother and a Moroccan father from Fez, Benhayoun grew up in Bezannes, a suburb of the Champagne capital. Nothing in his early life pointed toward snow or rifle shooting. His first love was tennis, which he played competitively as a youth. The turning point came almost by chance during his studies in Chambéry, where he discovered endurance sports at altitude, and eventually, cross-country skiing.
The idea of representing Morocco was sparked by a film: Good Luck Algeria, the story of a French-Algerian athlete who chooses to compete for his father’s homeland. «I closed my laptop and thought, ‘That’s what I want to do—represent Morocco at the Olympic Games'», Benhayoun recalls.
He initially focused on cross-country skiing, but later switched to biathlon at the suggestion of a friend. «[He] told me that while there had already been African athletes in cross-country skiing at the Olympics, there had never been one in biathlon. He encouraged me to give it a try. He was convinced that I could make history, for both Morocco and Africa».
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Driven by this vision, Benhayoun got to work. He met with the president of the Royal Moroccan Ski Federation and lobbied for its affiliation with the International Biathlon Union, a crucial step, which was achieved in June 2025.
On the slopes, his learning curve has been steep. Competing in races in France, the sport’s global stronghold, he often finishes far behind the leaders. Still, he presses on. «I used to tell myself I was up against guys who’d been doing this for 15 years», he says. “But then I flipped the narrative. At 30, I have a self-awareness many younger athletes don’t».
To make up for lost time, he built a small support team and secured his first financial backers. After a period in Switzerland, where he worked and saved money, he decided to go all in. For the past year, he has dedicated himself full-time to training and competition. His goal: to claim one of the ten Olympic spots reserved for emerging nations in biathlon. «I knew I had to give myself every chance to achieve this dream».
Benhayoun knows the road ahead is narrow. But he’s forging ahead, driven by his one-of-a-kind journey, his Moroccan heritage, and a belief that has become his mantra: «If others can do it, why not me?»
