The success for France follows their long-awaited gold in the men's 4x 7.5km relay, in which Norway and Sweden also took home the minor medals, but in the reverse order to today. France also took the mixed relay title, making it a clean sweep for the French in biathlon relays at the Anterselva Biathlon Arena.
Julia Simon carried the French flag over the line in celebration, crossing in a time of 1:10:22.7, just over 51 seconds clear of the Swedes, while Norway crossed the finish 1:07.6 down on France.
Clean firing in the first shoot allowed Julia Tannheimer of Germany and Camille Bened of France to contest a narrow lead, but mistakes at the second from the Frenchwoman allowed Sweden to reach the first exchange in the lead, clear of Bulgaria and Germany.
France were well outside the top 10 by this stage, and though Lou Jeanmonnot was gaining ground all the time, she had two misses at the first shoot that kept her down in 12th place. A penalty loop from Anna Magnusson meant Sweden weren't faring much better.
Franziska Preuss was clear at the second leg for Germany, but three misses completely hampered her race, and a better performance from Jeanmonnot and Magnusson got them right back in contention.
It was Baiba Bendika of Latvia who reached the halfway mark first, ahead of Bulgaria, with France in third.
Oceane Michelon quickly passed the Latvian and Bulgarians to go clear before the first shoot, and no mistakes allowed her to extend the advantage. Norway and Sweden passed some of the outsiders, but they had no hope of catching Michelon as she put in another display of shooting to finish with 10/10.
Michelon handed over to Simon 46.9 seconds clear of Sweden, as Elvira Oeberg handed over to sister Hanna Oeberg, but there was less than a second between them and Norway, as Maren Kirkeeide took over from Karolina Knotten.
100% accuracy from Simon at the first shoot all but ended the race, then she joined Michelon in going perfect at the second shoot as well. In fact, she was out of the shooting area before the Scandinavian duo even entered.
One miss from Oeberg and the final shoot compared to Kirkeeide's two put distance between the pair ahead of the final kilometre, and with Germany still pushing, the Norwegian was forced to protect bronze rather than chase hard for silver.
But gold belonged to France - it's a third for Simon as she pipped compatriot Jeanmonnot to the individual crown and was part of the mixed relay, while Sweden now have one gold, one silver and one bronze in biathlon events. Germany finished fourth, clear of Czechia, Poland and Finland.
