Cross-country skiing: Mathis Desloges, double Olympic runner-up in Tesero
He did it again. Last Sunday, Mathis Desloges created a sensation by winning Olympic silver in the skiathlon at Tesero (Italy). At midday on Friday, in conditions made very difficult by high temperatures, the Iséro native did it again in the individual 10km skate race.
On fire on the track, the cross-country skier from Villard-de-Lans (Isère) was only beaten to the line by the king of the discipline, Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo, who took the title by 4 sec 9. The great favourite, Norway’s Einar Hedegart, took bronze at 14 sec 0 after breaking down in the last kilometre.
It’s crazy, I can’t believe it,” said the French hero of the day afterwards in the mixed zone, speaking to France 2. I’ve never skied so fast in my life, and it’s going to be a medal all over again. I don’t have the words. Just: we’ve done it. French cross-country skiing is going from strength to strength. Today we showed once again that we’re up to the challenge and that we’re one of the best nations in the world.
Mathis Desloges went on to explain that his ambition before the start of the race was to bring home a medal . I knew I had the level, I showed it in the skiathlon,” he says. I trained to be at my best for these Olympic Games. It’s a silver medal, but I’ll be back for the gold.
“It’s indescribable
And he announces that his next objective is quite simply to beat Johannes Hoesflot Klæbo: “One day, I’ll get him,” he says in the Italian sunshine. I’m going to train hard to beat him one day. I’m sure I will.
“It gives me hope that one day I’ll be ahead of him. I train every day with the aim of one day being the best skier in the world,” he continued for Eurosport. I wouldn’t presume to say that one day I will be, but I would train hard for that.
In his initial reaction, Mathis Desloges didn’t forget to thank his parents, coaches and technicians. “We train for a whole season in a thankless sport. You can’t imagine the hours of work that go into it. To have a medal around your neck is the culmination of all that. It’s indescribable,” says the two-time Olympic cross-country skiing runner-up.
On Sunday, Mathis Desloges will be back on the track for the relay. An important event for the French team, Olympic bronze medallists in the event in 2014, 2018 and 2022. ” We can hope for great things, a different metal to the one I’ve had twice,” concludes the Villardien.
