If there is one thing about this health crisis that is dragging on in time and our hearts, it is that it has not distinguished person or condition: we have all to some extent been affected and some hit by the loss of a loved one.
Julien Absalon has been able to spend this period in his house, luckily "spacious and with a garden, I have been fortunate in that aspect -he assures- although I have not been able to stop remembering the people who have died".
And the fact is that "this health crisis has left us touched, it is unbelievable everything that has happened and how it is affecting our lives".
A life that now takes on another dimension, another speed: "These days I have been able to think a lot, to be calm. From now on I don't want to always go at a thousand miles an hour, I want to take things more calmly, take my time on those simple things that we don't normally value".
Waiting for the Olympics
A top-level athlete, he is now at the head of his personal project, the Absolute Absalonthe biker born in the heart of the Vosges draws a special 2020, without the Tokyo Olympics on the near horizon, but thirteen months ahead, if all goes well.
His boys "are still motivated and strong, they have no choice, this crisis has affected everything, absolutely everything. Now the goal is to finish the season well, the World Cup races that have been rescheduled for August, September and October and think about 2021".
The postponement of the Olympic Games does not admit discussion in the current context, to the problems that could occur in Japan, added the difficulties of many athletes to prepare, a dead end that offered "no other option than the one that has been taken, I hope that next year we can compensate with the best Games ever".
"There is no plan B, the Olympic Games remain the priority and the goal. Everyone is focused for it" he announces.
And the brightness in Julien's eyes, the tone of his voice, and the way he looks at the Olympics are all about it. Absalon vibrates when the word "Olympics" comes into the conversation, a two-time Olympic champion, a record that elevates him to the status of one of the best in the world. bikers bikers in history, if not the best. To the Olympic legacy add five world championships, as many European championships and seven World Cups.
However, his career has always been intertwined between Olympic events.
"That afternoon in Athens - 2004 - everything was so calculated, so programmed, I was so concentrated that, to be honest, I have just the right memories," he recalls.
Four years later, in the defense of the gold medal, things were somewhat different: "Beijing is another story, if I went to Athens with the idea of being a contender and with the idea of doing something important, in China there was nothing else to do but win. The pressure was enormous, I was the ultra favorite".
How do you live with that?
"You live with it and look ahead", he describes enigmatically, knowing that this alchemy, of taking gold out of any corner, belongs to the champions and that, in any case, they must pass it on to their disciples.
The champion in change
Julien Absalon is a living and oral history of the MTB, enrolled in it for more than twenty years, he has competed in the MTB then and now, in both with success.
Then on less technical, longer circuits, with demanding climbs, now on shorter, technical and tougher routes. In both he has been able to survive the bikes and their changes, he has been a champion in constant adaptation, a case of success in changing circumstances.
Change, which for many is a problem, has been a driving force for him: "Everything has changed a lot, at all levels, the circuits, the technique, the bikes, even the media, but I have to say that the constant novelties have been an extraordinary motivation, I have always had that point of ambition to keep growing".
A path on which, in his opinion, there is still room for improvement as "we see it in electric bicycles, a revolution that will surely make the sport more popular".
And so lives with the times this champion, a guy who keeps two Olympic gold medals in the trunk of important things, as a witness of his work and ambition, "a pride that has opened many doors for me, but that has not changed me as a person. I still enjoy family and friendship as always," he boasts.
With the harsh confinement behind him, also in France, Julien Absalon It seems that Tokyo 2021 is far away, but time, which he wants to take more slowly, flies and when he wants to realize it, Paris will appear at the end of the road.
Texts:JoanSeguidor's Notebook
