Six months after the Paris Olympics, 2/5. Silver medalist in Paris after a crazy race, the 30-year-old from Lodévois has moved on. Often questioned on this subject, he answers politely but without much conviction. Here he is already looking towards the future and victories.
And if it were rather him, the regional sportsman of the year 2024 ? Olympic vice-champion last summer, a world champion title, the general classification of the World Cup… Victor Koretzky's mountain bike season is “underrated” , as the young people say. But for Victor, this year will leave a taste of unfinished business. Getting excited, anyway, is not really the house style.
Moods, emotions, memories… everyone deals with them in their own way. Koretzky is not the type to spread them out for long. With him, to hell with nostalgia or regrets. His silver medal in Paris ? The Lodévois has moved on. He talks about it when asked, but no more.
“What happened, I will think about it all my life”
When we contacted him to take stock six months after the Olympics, to find out where he was at, Victor politely accepted. But talking about this Olympic adventure for the hundredth time no longer really enchants him. Especially since it is difficult for him to avoid the subject of the scenario of this crazy race in which the gold medal escaped him, due to a fatal error in one of the last turns.
“What happened, I will think about it all my life. But if I stay stuck on it, I will not move forward”, confides the man who has barely watched the images of the race again. “I've watched a few clips again, the ones that are the most publicized”, he specifies laconically. Does he still have nightmares about this acceleration at the limit of the rule of Thomas Pidcock, the final winner ? “No, except when someone talks to me about it”. Has he dwelt on it ? “Yes, but I've moved on”. Is he tired of talking about it ? “Yes. It's not against you. It's just that talking about it won't change what happened”, continues the Béziers native. How can you blame him ?
Koretzky is programmed to win. Since the youngest categories, he has been rolling over the competition. So, this second Olympic place, especially given the way the race went, is not enough.
Read also:“He undid my shoe while passing me”: Beaten by a hair by Pidcock, Victor Koretzky reacts to his silver medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics
In the wake of the Games, he took out his frustration on the bike. A month after Paris 2024, he won the world title in the cross country short track (XCC) category, won the last two rounds of the World Cup, the short track World Cup ranking, and finished second in the cross country XCO World Championships. “It was easy to remobilize me. When you're a high-level athlete, you can't just be satisfied with money. Otherwise, I limit myself in my development”, he assures.
The Los Angeles Olympic Games in sight
This rage to win has never left him. The post-Olympic decompression experienced by a bunch of athletes does not seem to have had an impact on him. On the contrary. “Even if I had been Olympic champion, I would have kept the motivation. It's not because you touch the Grail that you no longer want it. On the contrary, you want to send even more, to be at the top level. I'm not dissatisfied, I just want excellence”, he thunders.
The quest for excellence will guide him until the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, in 2028. That is the long-term objective. In the meantime, he wants to pile up successes in the World Cup and the next world championships.
Sporting stakes much more attractive than his missions at the end of last year. Even if he put all the willpower into it, all the media appointments, participation in sports-themed events and obligations with the various sponsors drained a lot of energy. That's also the Olympic effect. “I am in demand a little more everywhere, at all levels. But I am coping well”, promises the person concerned. Unperturbed, in all circumstances.
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