Bold project for Paris 2024: how orienteering champion Kyburz wants to reach the Olympic marathon

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It would be OL-ympia madness! His plan was simply to do something different. To run a marathon. Then something big came out. Orientation champion Matthias Kyburz (34 on March 5) explains in an interview with Blick how he wants to take to the 42.195 km asphalt as a newcomer at the Olympic Games in Paris – and become the third fastest Swiss marathon runner in history.

Kyburz has one chance to beat the ambitious Olympic limit of 2:08:10: during the Paris Marathon on April 7. Of his compatriots, only the already qualified Tadesse Abraham (41) and Viktor Röthlin (49) have ever been that fast. If successful, the Fricktaler will prepare for the Olympic race in August. If it doesn’t work out, he will start the orienteering season in May.

Almost 20 km/h in 2 hours – that’s what marathon legend Röthlin says

It is a daring project; the outcome is uncertain. Kyburz has never participated in a marathon. And yet the real orienteering runner with eight world titles has a chance on the harder, monotonous surface. “Otherwise I would not have agreed to it,” marathon legend Röthlin, who supports him in the project, told Blick. “But you have to be realistic. Everything must come together on day X, even the factors over which he has no influence.” The weather, for example. Or that others also pursue this time and form a group with him.

This day in question, April 7 in Paris, is getting closer. To be as prepared as possible, Kyburz changed his training. The plan is week by week: a total of 180 km of running, with varying intensity, plus 4 hours of strength training for the legs and core. Some professional runners train even more. But Kyburz and Röthlin prefer to concentrate on three key training sessions that are important for this. “I have a good foundation after about 14 years of top sport,” says Kyburz.

Röthlin, who took part in 27 marathons as an elite runner and became European champion in 2010, is enthusiastic about him. He only really got to know him during the project: “I was optimistic from the start. But when the training started, I was not only surprised, but excited!” And yet: he is enthusiastic about the way Kyburz is tackling the project, but realistic about time. Kyburz should have clocked 19.8 km/h for over two hours. Many of us would even be slower on a city bike.

The first position statement is a superior win

Currently everything is going according to plan with Kyburz. The Reuss run in Bremgarten at the end of February was actually only intended to determine the location, time was not a factor. Nevertheless, Kyburz won the race, in which other ambitious runners also took part, by more than a minute. Average: 20.7 km/h on the winding 10 km route. It remains uncertain whether he can maintain the pace over the 42 kilometers.

Kyburz still has a month until his day of truth. The runner from Möhlin would not be the first athlete from the Aargau community to achieve success in a cosmopolitan city. The footballer Ivan Rakitic went to the same school – and became a star in Barcelona. Will Forest King Kyburz now reach Versailles? The Olympic marathon takes place in the famous Paris Castle in the summer. But first the career changer, also in Paris, must buy the ticket.

Source : Blick