Charlotte Morel

At the U23 European Championships in Pulpí she placed 5th in the individual ranking and 2nd in the team competition.

In Luxemburg she took part, for the first time in her life, in a European Cup triathlon and straight away won the gold medal.

She placed 9th at the European Junior Championships in Lisbon and 24th at the Junior World Championships in Vancouver.

In France she represented the club Beauvais and took part in two triathlons of the prestigious elite D1 Club Championship Series: in Beauvais she placed 28th and in Lorient 11th.

Morel also represented Beauvais in the Club Championship Series (Grand Prix). In the three competitions in which she took part she was always among the top-three of her age category (Junior): Lorient (3rd, overall 32nd), Embrun (2nd, overall 6th), and La Baule (3rd, overall 8th).

At the European Junior Championships in Copenhagen and the World Junior Championships in Hamburg she placed 6th and 8th respectively.

Charlotte Morel (born 16 January 1989 in Draguignan, Var), is a French professional triathlete, twelve times National Champion in various duathlon and triathlon categories (cadette, junior, espoir), e.g. National U23 Triathlon Champion of the years 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012.

It was Charlotte Morel's uncle Didier Morel who brought her to the triathlon club of Draguignan in 2003.

Having finished the local collège in Draguignan in 2004, Morel was admitted to the triathlon section of the Pôle Espoir CREPS PACA, a high performance centre situated in a small pine forest in Boulouris close to St. Raphael which closely collaborates with the Lycée Saint Exupery, a high school in St. Raphael.

Together with winner of the 2004 Junior Championships Juliette Benedicto, she was considered the rising star among the young French triathletes.

Morel does not mention this event among her "palmarés" and, in fact, this debut was overshadowed by a serious bicycle accident.

In 2005, however, Morel won the National Duathlon Championships (category: cadets) and took part in the European Junior Championships in Greece.

Since 2006, Morel is a permanent member of the French National Team.

In the French Club Championship Series, Morel represented the club Beauvais, which e.g. in 2006, 2009 and in 2010 won both the French Club Championship Series Lyonnaise des Eaux and the National Club Championships in Gruissan.

Since then, and up to now, Pierre Houseaux has been Morel's trainer and she still lives in Boulouris (Aigue Bonne) even though she joined the triathlon club of Beauvais in 2006 and, like the well-known triathletes Sylvain Sudrie, Laurent Vidal, Emmie Charayron and Delphine Pelletier, she enrolled at the Military School Ecole d’application d’infanterie (= EAI), then in Montpellier, in December 2007 (grade: soldat 1re classe; 2012: caporal).

In June 2006, Morel took her high-school diploma at the Lycée Saint Exupery (BAC S = scientifique, i.e. sciences de la vie et de la terre) and registered with the University of Nice for undergraduate and postgraduate studies in sports (STAPS = Sciences et techniques des activités physiques et sportives). In summer 2008 she obtained the DEUG STAPS (Diplôme d’études universitaires générales) and in summer 2009 the Licence L3 in éducation et motricité, a kind of bachelor's degree, to go on with her Master's studies in nutrition (Prévention et Education pour la Santé par l'Activité Physique, option Prévention par l'alimentation et la nutrition), which she concluded in June 2011.

Tall as she is (1.72m), Morel has been featured several times as a maillots de bain model, e.g. on the frontpage and in a special section of the leading French magazine Triathlète.

On her homepage Morel looks at the year 2006 as a turning point when she started to compete internationally and, in Guadeloupe, for the first time took part in a short distance triathlon (Olympic distance).

At the age of 17 Morel, the 2006 National Champion in Duathlon and Triathlon, started to assert herself on an international level, too.

In 2007 Morel was again the National Duathlon and Triathlon Champion in the Junior class, but she also won the National Triathlon Championships in the U23 category (Espoir) and this result at the same time gained her, at the age of 18, the silver medal in the French Elite ranking.

After her traditional summer training camp in Alpe d'Huez Charlotte Morel won the sprint triathlon in Vaujany (29 July 2007).

In this year Morel competed in various age categories.

Like e.g. Emmie Charayron, David Hauss and Laurent Vidal, Morel is also a member of the French Military Triathlon Team (Equipe de France militaire de triathlon EFM), which she joined in 2008 and which in summer 2010 moved from Montpellier to the Ecoles militaires de Draguignan (EMD) in Morel's native town.

In 2008 Moreland her EAI team won the gold medal at the Military World Championships in Estonia, in the individual ranking Morel placed 5th.

In 2008 Morel also had her World Cup debut, placing 24th in Lorient.

With her French team EAI she also won the gold medal at the Military World Championships in Estonia, placing 4th in the individual ranking.

The French media often depicted Morel and Emmie Charayron, the Junior World Champion of 2009, as the most promising prospects for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

The leading French magazine, Triathlète, for instance, dedicated its famous two-page column called "Confrontation" to the two young triathletes.

Her younger brother Jérémy "Jey" Morel is the National French Cyclo-cross Junior Champion of the year 2009 and also takes part in triathlons.

At the Military World Championships 2011 in Rio de Janeiro (24 July 2011) Morel placed 5th again, the French female team placed fourth and the French mixed team won the gold medal.

Morel and the several times National and European champion Frédéric Belaubre, who is also part of the elite centre CREPS PACA in Boulouris and also represented the elite team of Beauvais (until 2011), are a couple.

Born into a sports family, Charlotte Morel started swimming at the age of three, and at ten years old for the first time she took part in cross country running competitions organized by the UNSS (= Union nationale du sport scolaire).

Morel managed to finish the race and even overtook five competitors, but she was noticeably weakened and even though, the following day, the French team could place 8th in the women relay (among 11 teams), Morel's individual time would have relegated her to the most disappointing 29th of 33 places.

In 2012 Morel won the bronze medal at the World Military Triathlon Championships.

In 2012, Morel won the bronze medal at the Military Triathlon World Championship in Lausanne (25 August 2012).

At the famous Embrunman (Long Distance), for instance, he placed 30th (15 August 2012).

From 2013 to 2016, however, Morel will represent Issy les Moulineaux because of Beauvais' complete retreat from the elite sports.

In the Junior class, she placed 13th at the European Championships in Autun and 7th at the World Championships in Lausanne.

At the Duathlon World Championship in Rimini she achieved a top-ten position as well and in Switzerland she won the gold medal at the Sprint Triathlon of Walliswil.

As an 18-year-old she also competed in the Elite class successfully: at the European Cup and the Premium European Cup in Poland and in Turkey respectively she placed 11th and 14th.