While the mixed biathlon relay was identified as the main promise of French medals this Sunday, Mathis Desloges shortened the wait for the French followers. Although he was under the threat of disqualification, the 23-year-old cross-country skier won his silver medal at the end of the skiathlon event for his first Winter Games, only ahead of the ogre Johannes Klaebo. Here are three things to know about the second Frenchman in the history of the Games to win an individual medal in cross-country skiing.
“A training nut”
Top athletes train a lot, that’s no news. On the other hand, they do not carry out all their exercises with the same enthusiasm as Desloges. “I’m a training freak,” he confided to Le Dauphiné.
The ambitious Isère resident explained to L’Équipe that he spends between 20 and 35 hours per week training. Breaking his habits, he nevertheless gave himself two short weeks of vacation so as not to arrive cooked for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
“It’s been three seasons since I stopped,” he told the sports daily. There, it’s an Olympic season, I allowed myself a nice break. » Two weeks of vacation for three seasons of cross-country skiing, the ratio seems unbalanced.
He had bet everything on these Games
Everything for the Games. The Desloges cross-country ski season hit a hole. More than a month without pointing the end of his sticks in the World Cup, between mid-December and the end of January. The Frenchman signed his return to Goms, in Switzerland, before heading straight to the Olympics.
He spent this month preparing for his first Olympic appearance. He went so far as to skip the Tour de Ski, one of the most prestigious events of the season for his discipline. More specifically, he had targeted the skiathlon in Italy: “It’s the event that I checked off, the one that I prepared the most for,” he explained to L’Équipe.
Towards a retraining in the police?
Aged 23, Desloges still has time to collect medals, laps and change his mind, but according to the police, he would consider taking the competitions during his career change.
The U23 20 km world champion had started studies at STAPS, the sports university, but he abandoned them in order to place all his strength on his sport. That didn’t stop him from absorbing theory and studies to perfect his knowledge. Currently a reservist, he joined the national police team.
