Having gone through this during the Paris 2024 Olympics this summer, Mathilde Gros returned to this enormous disillusionment last Thursday on the set of the Sports Stream show on the Sport channel in France. The leader of French track cycling among women has nevertheless managed to turn the page since. But it wasn't easy and it took time.
World speed champion, twice European keirin champion, Mathilde Gros (25 years old) was naturally part of the French team's main chances of a medal last summer at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Many specialists even imagined her being one of the heroines of these Games, the organizers having scheduled the track cycling events on this track of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome that the Northerner loves so much in competition. “I had some incredible moments there.”
Unfortunately for the leader of the French track athletes, like these Olympics which turned into a fiasco for the Blues, the event was a complete disaster. Because Gros, competing in keirin then in speed the next day, failed in both specialties. To the point of having great difficulty recovering from it afterwards. “It was a bit of shame, of cowardice, of disappointment, of anger, of incomprehension,” admitted the Northerner last Thursday on the set of the Sports Stream show on the channel
Sports in France. Guest of Lucien Jahan, the heroine of the 2022 Worlds in France, however, assured that she had since moved on to something else. Even if it wasn't easy, to hear it.
Gros: “The disappointment was very violent”
“The disappointment afterwards was very violent, there was a bit of mourning at that time, but the road to recovery was quicker,” confided the 25-year-old French champion, without hiding that she expected a lot from these Games. “Of course I was sad, I would have liked to bring home a medal, it didn’t go the way I wanted.” From the keirin, Gros admits that she understood that she would hardly be able to shine. “Honestly, it was very hard. I felt so good that I didn't understand, and I was really angry with myself for making this mistake of staying behind and being locked up. This had happened to me several times during the season, but I told myself that it would not happen to me at the Games (…) It was horrible, I took a hit to my morale at that moment and it made me feel better. had an impact for the future (…) I said that the one who would win would be the one who was the most mentally fresh, and that was the case. I attacked these Games without having all the energy I wanted.” The worm was then in the fruit and the speed, twenty-four hours later, also led to terrible disillusionment.
Big: “The feeling of fighting against myself”
“I didn't feel good on the track, I couldn't find my bearings, feel my pedaling. I felt like I was fighting against myself, it was horrible (…) I didn’t recognize myself.” Collapsed at the moment, but not without first having a big moment of absence (“I didn't realize at the time, I had a blackout”), the double European champion, who had already experienced a “catastrophe” in Tokyo, today relishes with hindsight having participated in this unforgettable meeting, she who dreamed of following in the footsteps of the “Braqueuses”, having started out in basketball. “I'm lucky because I can say to myself that I did them, it was a dream when I was already playing basketball, and it became a career goal and one of my life goals. It’s the best thing that can happen as an athlete.” Gros, back from the Track Champions League (the Champions League for track riders), does not despair that these Olympics which are being denied to her for the moment will end up smiling on her. “I want to bring home medals.”
