Nikola Karabatic: "Three times Olympic champion, four medals, that's a swimmer's record!"

How do you feel with this new gold medal around your neck?

Nikola Karabatic:

I am a little drained, I find it difficult to realize what we have just done.

Perhaps it is also the fact that the room is empty that does not help me realize that we are Olympic champions.

Three times Olympic champion, four medals, it's crazy, it's a swimmer's record!

(laughs)

To discover

• The full Olympic program

• The Olympic medal table

Do you get used to the happiness of being an Olympic champion?

Not at all.

If it was, I would have done better to stop after the first one.

You never get used to victory, and the happiness of winning titles.

I'm proud for the team, because there are players who had never won an international title before, others who had only known Rio where we had stumbled on the bottom step.

This title is deserved, we all worked very hard and I am also proud individually in relation to my career, my injury.

To read also: Tops / Flops France-Denmark: the suffocating French defense, the Danish gifts

You have experienced great defensive performances by the France team throughout your career. Where do you place the one against Denmark in this final?

Tonight was just amazing. I think we saw that physically the two teams were started. There was also the pressure of the game and both teams missed a lot. It was played on defense. We knew the key was there. You had to be physically tough to make them doubt. We managed to do it and help Vincent (Gérard) to have a great match, a great tournament. It was a real pleasure to evolve in this defense and to have such a level, especially against Denmark.

What happens when the final whistle blows in your head?

I think on the last move it's Gidsel missing his pass or something. I see Ludo (Fabregas) who gets the ball. There, I tell myself that it should not stay much time. And then I tell myself that it is not possible, that the referees are going to whistle us something, they are going to make us crazy. But no and I see Ludo jumping from a distance, I tell myself that there is a way to miss and then the ball goes in. Except that in fact I felt more emotions after the victory in the half because there, I simply did not believe it. I said to myself: "no, it's not possible, Olympic champion really?"

"It's not that it's hard to believe it, but the road has been so long, the qualifications, the preparation with the Covid conditions, the bubbles in Créteil ..."

Nikola Karabatic

Was it hard to believe in gold after everything you and the France team have been through for the past two years?

It's not that it's hard to believe it, but the road has been so long, the qualifications, the preparation with the Covid conditions, the bubbles in Créteil ... An Olympic tournament is every two days a match, you find yourself in a super tough group and you ask yourself questions. Then you come to the end like that, you play the favorite Denmark and you say to yourself: "We cannot fail again!" After the silver medal of the last Olympics, even if many teams would dream of being there, you are a competitor and you cannot be satisfied with that.

Do you think you have put France in its place with this victory?

I do not know.

We were in the World Top 4, and after that we know how difficult it is to be first and to stay that way.

We did it tonight, and we can be proud of it.

Do you know what you are going to do with the France team in the future?

Not at all.

I will savor this title and then I will decide.

But nothing forces me to choose very quickly.

I haven't asked myself that question yet, and I didn't want to ask it before the end of the tournament.

Now, this is a subject that I must also see with my relatives, my coaches.

Interview in mixed zone