Cross-country skiing | Mathis Desloges talks to Nordic Magazine in a long interview: “Have a full season at a high level”

Cross-country skiing: a winter of confirmation for Mathis Desloges

After a highly successful first full season among the world’s cross-country skiing elite, in which he finished sixth in the skiathlon at the World Championships in Trondheim (Norway), Mathis Desloges has made a name for himself among the best cross-country skiers in the world.

At the age of 23, the Villardien, thirteenth in the last overall rankings, is ambitious for this Olympic winter, which will be one of confirmation for him.

• How did you feel about last season and what do you take away from this first experience as a whole?

If I had to make an assessment, I first attacked with Ruka, for the opening of the World Cup. It was already a childhood dream to take part in those races, but I’d say that as time went on, I matured, I started to play up front, to compete for top 10 places and podium finishes. It was an enormous amount of experience and I’ve come away with a lot of hopes for next year, especially for the Games where I think I can achieve great things.

• In a way, these results have propelled you into a new dimension, where you’ve gone from being the new kid on the block to one of the strong men in the French cross-country skiing team. How did you experience this development over the course of the season?

I very quickly changed my mindset. I started the World Cup in Ruka with the idea of discovering new things and gaining as much experience as possible, but I very quickly got it into my head that I could go much higher in each race. The discovery aspect very quickly disappeared and all I had in my sights was a place on the podium.

• In addition to your remarkable World Cup season, you also shone in the Tour de Ski, finishing eighth in the final rankings. What was the main ingredient in your performance in this type of competition?

The Tour de Ski is something in its own right, it’s not a world cup like we’re used to. We have seven races to compete in nine days, so it’s one race after another and it puts a huge strain on the body. It was a big objective and, by finishing eighth, I can say that it’s been achieved.

• One of the highlights of your season was Les Rousses, where you competed for the first time in front of your home crowd in a World Cup event. What memories do you have of that?

It was great, it was very, very great (laughs)! It was all the stronger because we’d just come off the Tour de Ski. During the Tour, everyone fell ill, and a lot of people paid the price right from the start, and Hugo [Lapalus, editor’s note] and I weren’t spared either. We raced the last two days sick and the aftermath of the Tour de Ski was very complicated for me. For a whole week, I was bedridden, I didn’t do any sport, I was tired and it was very difficult for me to recover. But Les Rousses came very quickly. That was one of my big objectives, there was Trondheim, the Tour de Ski and of course Les Rousses.

There’s no doubt that racing in front of your nearest and dearest has a special flavour. And we were all keen to do well that weekend, but the weeks leading up to the races were complicated because I didn’t know if I was going to be able to defend my chances. My condition was getting worse by the day. So it was a huge relief to be able to take the start of these races [in which he finished sixteenth in the individual skate race and thirteenth in the mass-start classic, editor’s note], even if I had to make do with the shape I was in those days. And to be able to race in front of all that enthusiasm, that’s what we train for every day.

In the end, the weekend went very well, and of course we would have liked to have won some medals, but that didn’t happen, so we came away with a bit of a sour taste. It was a magnificent event and we’ll be keen to perform there again. That’s for next time.

• You also competed in the world championships for the first time, and what’s more in Trondheim in front of the Norwegian public. What do you take away from this event, which was also a great success for you?

It’s really a magnificent race site with, on top of that, lots of people who are fans of cross-country skiing along the slopes. We weren’t at all used to seeing 100,000 people on the 50km skate, it was just incredible, there are no words to describe it. It was something I’d never experienced before. When we started thewarm-up, I couldn’t hear myself breathe, I was short of breath. What’s more, the weather was great that day and having so many people cheering us on was great for Nordic skiing and for all the cross-country skiers.

• How did your integration into the World Cup squad go?

The previous season, I’d had the opportunity to race a few World Cup rounds, so I wasn’t yet a full member of the A group, but I was able to join it for short periods. When I found out that I was going to be preparing with the World Cup group, everything happened very quickly. From the very first training sessions, I found my place in the squad. This group is like a family, we live together half the time. We all get on really well and we go about things with passion and dedication. When someone performs well, whether it’s ourselves or someone else, we all experience the podium or victory in the same way. That’s why we really enjoy being part of this team.

• You talk about the mentality that is the strength of this French team, this ability to share an individual performance with the team and that transcends the rest of the group. How do you analyse this?

I’d say we’re experiencing things in different ways. At the start of the season, we could see that things were working against us and we had trouble getting our medal count up. On the other hand, as soon as Lucas [Chanavat, editor’s note] stepped up to the plate in Davos, we very quickly saw a virtuous circle in the team. Hugo [Lapalus] was on the podium the next day, and that got the ball rolling. We had a great Tour de Ski after that, with Hugo on the podium overall, plus the purple jersey, while I managed to get into the top 10.

We’re more than a team, we’re a family and we pull each other up, whether it’s on a daily basis in training or during the season at the races, there’s no rivalry between us. That’s also what makes us want to get up in the morning to go training, what makes us want to go racing, and that’s something really strong.

• In recent years, the French team has tended to shine in the sprint, with the distance taking a back seat in the transition to the post-Maurice Manificat World Cup. But given the performances of the 2024/2025 season, it’s clear that the distance works just as well with Hugo Lapalus as it does with you…

Yes, it’s great to see that the distance also works. Over the last few years, a sprint group has formed, with lots of medals and podium finishes. Of course, that wasn’t necessarily the case for the distance, we had more difficulty performing. So I think it’s created a sort of craze for sprinting, with some very good athletes dedicating themselves solely to sprinting.

With Hugo and others, there’s been another generation that’s gone the distance a bit more. And then with Maurice, two seasons ago, we trained together with the 2 team. It’s been a great year, very enriching. I’d even go so far as to say that the baton was passed, with Maurice passing on to us all that he’d experienced during his own years. So we arrived at the World Cup with stars in our eyes and a desire to do as well as he had done. But for me, it’s a bit the other way round, next season I’d also like to take part in the sprints.

• What do you mean by that?

There’s only one team. Whether it’s sprinters, distance runners, classicists or skateboarders, we all train together. I’d say that the team’s dynamic is more geared towards versatility, not just specialising in sprinting or distance. That’s essential if you want to be at the front of the field in the Tour de Ski or the overall World Cup. So that’s what I’m aiming for next season too.

• We imagine that this was the main focus of your preparations for the coming season. What are your ambitions for the sprints?

It’s something we’ve talked about a lot with the staff and the coaches in particular. I’m not aiming to achieve the same performances as I did in the distance in the first instance, because that’s something you can’t invent (laughs). But it has to be complementary, it’s not because you’re trying to improve in the sprint that you’re necessarily going to regress in the distance, or vice versa. It’s still cross-country skiing, and I think it can help me, particularly in the sprint finishes during the mass-starts, to have this positional play, this power on a straight line. It’s complementary to what I want to work on in distance.

• In the opposite direction, there’s Richard Jouve in particular, who is taking this approach of moving from sprint to distance. Which way is easier, from sprint to distance or from distance to sprint?

I can’t really answer that question, I think it depends a lot on the route, the gradient and the snow, depending on how hard it is to ski. There are a lot of external factors which mean that, one way or the other, it’s perfectly feasible and it’s something that complements the programme you can do during your training hours.

Improving in the sprint will also help me to improve in distance and, conversely, if sprinters improve in distance, they also gain in endurance. You mustn’t forget that a sprint race goes from the qualifier to the final, and that’s a very long time. These are long days with four heats to compete in, which is very demanding on the body. Distance work on this can therefore also be complementary. Richard would probably talk about it better than I would, but I think that the fact that he wanted to improve his distance will also help him in the sprint.

• Did you have to prepare differently to be able to play on all fronts next season?

We’re preparing for the Olympics, so we’re not going to reinvent a lot of things. We’ve kept what worked for us last year, adapting it a little for this objective, which is the sprint. I’ll be able to take advantage of the opportunity to discuss and test myself against the best in the world. That’s the great asset we have in this team, to have some of the best people in sprint, distance, skate and classic. That’s also the strength of this group, that we can draw inspiration from each other on a daily basis, whatever we do.

• France is often seen as an outsider in competitions, lying in ambush with a few other nations behind Norway and Sweden, who are perhaps a little above them. How do you analyse this?

I started last season with, I think, mental barriers where I put Scandinavia on a pedestal. But as the season went on, I quickly realised that they’re human beings like us, with two arms and two legs, and that it’s possible to beat them. That’s the spirit that reigns in the team, we don’t put up any barriers and we give it everything we’ve got. Sometimes things go our way and I think that, in the years to come, we’ll be aiming to tip the scales in our favour more often, whether it’s in the sprint or the distance. I think it’s something we can do, we’re training for it, but I don’t see us as outsiders, I really see us as high-performance athletes. So we mustn’t put any barriers in our way.

• When did you realise that it was possible to beat the great cross-country skiing nations?

To be honest, it happened very quickly, at the mass-start in Ruka, so after my second race of the season [in which he finished 26th in the individual classic and ninth in the mass-start skate, editor’s note] because I hadn’t started the sprint. When I crossed the finish line, I said to myself: ‘I can really do better’. From then on, I knew I could compete with the best in the world. And it was only my first World Cup weekend, so I was already starting to think that I could aim higher and be on the podium.

• Next year, with the Olympics coming up, your results have propelled you into a position of prominence in the French team. Are you approaching the season differently psychologically?

No, I’m sticking to the same approach as I did last year, i.e. doing the best I can during all the training preparations. I don’t think many people could do what I do in terms of volume and training load. I have this ability to enjoy it, and to believe in what I’m doing. I have a lot of support within the French team, among the staff, and even at home with my family. I think that’s what makes me strong, and I don’t want to change things. I don’t want to start thinking I’m someone else. What I’m doing, as we’ve seen, is working, and every year I make progress and reach new milestones.

It’s happened very rarely that I’ve missed out on my season, so I’m doing simple things that I believe in 100% and I’m going to continue with that momentum. We’ll see how good I am for the Olympics, I think that’s an event in its own right. But if I look back, I can say that when I started the World Cup, it was extraordinary. Running in front of 100,000 people was something I’d never experienced before. So, each time, I realise that, even if I bring new things, where I’m confronted with more people on the track, more media issues, races with higher stakes, it still works for me. So I don’t want to put any more pressure on myself than I have in the past, I just want to do what I know how to do.

• You’ve taken one step after another, very quickly, even though you’re still only at the start of your senior career. Aren’t things moving too quickly?

Everything is happening very quickly, but that’s also what I want. I want it to go quickly because I’m giving myself the means to make it happen at that pace. So I’m taking it one step at a time, and I’m moving forward like that. For the moment, it’s working for me and I like it, so I want to go as far as I can in that direction.

• What will you be aiming for next season? A top 10 overall in the World Cup, a first individual podium or a performance at the Olympic Games?

I’d say there are several objectives. I want to aim for the overall World Cup, and that means achieving good results on all the stages, from Ruka to Lake Placid. I want to be consistent and have a full season at a high level. There will be opportunities to finish on the podium in every race, every weekend. And of course I hope that I’ll manage to unlock that counter. In the season, there’s also the Tour de Ski, in which I want to perform well. I realise that it’s an event that suits me quite well. It’s a format that suits me because, as I said before, I accept fairly substantial training loads, whether in competition or in training.

Then of course there are the Olympic Games, where I’m hoping to put in some great performances, particularly in the skiathlon, where I finished sixth in Trondheim. And, like all the French, we’re keen to do well in the relay, which we’ve done very well in previous years [Les Bleus have won the bronze medal in this event at the last three editions, editor’s note]. So I’d say I’ve got a chance of a medal in these two formats.

Read also

• “It’s a very good omen”: winner of the individual skate event at the Challenge Vincent Vittoz in Prémanon, Mathis Desloges talks to Nordic Magazine
• “I said to myself: ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’”: Mathis Desloges looks back on his performance in the mass start classic at the French Championships in Autrans.
• “I’m already looking forward to the next race”: sixth in the skiathlon at the World Championships, Mathis Desloges finished 9 tenths away from a medal.