Expected for years, Mathilde Gros brought, on Friday October 14, to France its first gold medal at the World Track Championships in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. This is the first world title for the 23-year-old Provençale, a great hope of sprinting since the juniors, and she won it in the queen event: speed.
” It’s incredible. I think I’ll be dreaming about it all night”, celebrated Mathilde Gros in the velodrome where the Olympic Games will take place, in less than two years. “ The ultimate goal is Paris 2024. But I think it will be one of the most beautiful memories of my entire life. It’s just too good”she added.
This triumph, the French did not steal it, after having single-handedly dominated the powerful German team. First, in the semi-finals, by ejecting the double defending champion, Emma Hinze, from the tournament, despite the loss of the first round. She did it again for the gold, leaving Lea Sophie Friedrich no chance, this time in two straight matches. “Being at home has helped me a lot, says Mathilde Gros. Crossing the line, I shouted with all my might, I think the whole world heard it! It’s an emotion I’ve never felt in my entire life. »
Setbacks before success
Mathilde Gros, born in the Pas-de-Calais but who grew up in the Bouche-du-Rhône, discovered cycling by chance eight years ago, when she was an apprentice basketball player and dreamed of baskets at three points. Gifted, she quickly asserted herself as a great hope of French sport by chaining titles among juniors, some then predicting a destiny for her like Félicia Ballanger, the great lady of French sprinting, triple Olympic champion.
A pressure that made her sometimes feverish. Mathilde Gros experienced several setbacks after a promising third place at the 2019 Worlds, often due to a lack of self-confidence. “I take slaps but one day I will have a click”she said, last year, after two successive poor performances at the Tokyo Olympics (9e individual speed and 13e keirin) and at the World Championships in Roubaix (9e you keirin).
The click therefore came on Friday, on the velodrome where she knew how to do violence to herself to believe more in her. Even if it means jostling the champions she admires, defying her opponents with her gaze for long seconds.
A final pleasure that she shared on Friday with the numerous and overexcited public, who sang « Mathilde, Mathilde » passionate. “You don’t realize how powerful it is.explains the cyclist. It’s a sick thing. Paris is going to be so good in two years. A lot has changed since the Games [de Tokyo en 2021] for me. We started all over again. »
Silver medal for Melvin Landereau
The French supporters had been heated by the beautiful silver medal won earlier in the evening by Melvin Landerneau, who was then the second for France in these Worlds, after the bronze won the day before by the women’s pursuit team.
The European champion in the kilometer in August in Munich certainly could not do anything against the overpowering Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland, who retained his title with a margin greater than 1 sec and 4 tenths. But he too, at 24, opened up his appetite for Paris 2024.
“It’s a great performance.he commented. From the start, I knew it was going to be very difficult to get him. The objective is to fill this “gap” with him between now and the Games. We’re going back to work to try to join him on this planet. »
A planet where the Italian Filippo Ganna also lives, who won a fifth world title in the individual pursuit, a new world record at stake. The best rider on the planet however arrived tired on these Worlds after having beaten, last Saturday, another record, the legendary one, by covering 56.792 kilometers on the track of Granges, in Switzerland.
But he was able to find the resources to beat his compatriot Jonathan Milan in the final, and enrich his showcase of trophies, which also includes two world titles in the road time trial.