Chloé, do you approach these Games with a feeling of revenge vis-à-vis Pyeongchang and your 5th place in 2018?
Chloe Trespeuch:
Yes, these will be my third Olympic Games, each time with a different state of mind.
In Sochi, I had the ardor of youth and I arrived as an outsider, without too much experience.
I was simply discovering and wanting to surpass myself on D-Day. It went well with a bronze medal.
And then in Pyeongchang, I had arrived more in a favorite costume.
I knew I had the ability to go for the podium, so I felt more pressure.
And at the finish, it was a real frustration to finish 5th, which is both very close and very far from the medal.
There, I arrive in Beijing with somewhat the same status and the desire to live the adventure to the full.
I have no regrets about my preparation and I want to go all out,
without being afraid of missing out.
And yes, with also a bit of a feeling of revenge to take on Pyeongchang.
To discover
The Olympic medal table: Norway already in the lead, France unlocks its counter
Full results of the 2022 Winter Olympics
The complete program of the Beijing Olympics 2022
How can these 2018 Games serve you today?
Looking back, I realize that this experience served me a lot.
It was then the biggest failure of my career and it allowed me to ask myself lots of questions about the rest of my career, about how I wanted to prepare, train, with whom... This failure pushed to completely question myself and to progress thanks to everything that I put in place afterwards, in reaction to Pyeongchang.
I got back to work to get closer to my goals.
I had taken a good slap in the face but the next four years were very effective in terms of performance and personal development.
At the start of the season, you have piled up the podiums, in particular second places (three in a row before the Games). What did you miss on the other hand to clinch a victory?
I thought about it a lot… Already, I am very satisfied with my start to the season because I really had the objective of being regular in the World Cup.
In the past, every season, I was capable of very good performances, but also of much less good ones.
So I wanted to get to a stage where I was regular.
Which is the case this season with only Top 5 and four podiums.
This inevitably brings me serenity and confidence.
Afterwards, it does not miss much to clinch a victory.
What exactly ?
I do not know.
I have no major flaws to work with.
I'm not very good at the start but that's not a big deal because there's often room to come back by choosing your lines well.
I'm really just missing tiny little details to beat the competition.
Read alsoChloé Trespeuch: “This season, I have a double revenge to take”
At these Games, one of your main rivals will be Charlotte Bankes, whom you rubbed shoulders with in the France team before she decided to defend the colors of England. This must be a somewhat special rivalry?
Yes, it is very special.
It was France who trained her and we are only a year apart, so I spent the whole of my early career by her side.
Afterwards, she left for Great Britain, that's how it is.
She is a competitor that I respect a lot, especially since she is the rider of the moment with her title of world champion.
She has a string of victories and it's an additional motivation for me to make the French colors shine rather than her, the British colors.
You are very committed to the defense of the environment. What do you think of these Games on 100% artificial snow?
I'm a little disappointed that they chose a place that is not necessarily suitable for practicing winter sports and that had to be transformed to adapt it.
This is not what will prevent me from fully experiencing this event for which I have been working for so long.
Nevertheless, I hope that we all talk about it, that we realize that it does not necessarily suit us to have such a negative impact on nature and that the next events will have a greater concern for the planet.
I think we got off to a good start with Paris 2024, which puts environmental protection at the heart of its project.
I find it very inspiring and it gives hope for the future of sporting events.
I think the two are compatible.
In Beijing,
A word about your nutrition. You expressed concern before you came here that you are a vegetarian. Has this concern been lifted?
Yes, it's always a concern for me as a vegetarian to have everything I need in terms of food for the races.
Especially on Games where we stay longer.
We know the importance of diet on performance.
Everything is fine here, I have tofu, eggs, whatever I need.
Without forgetting that I had brought some small supplements to have enough energy to face the cold.