World champion Gremaud has reached the goal of her dreams

When the weather is nice, their mood is also good. Mathilde Gremaud has always emphasized and proven this. And this Tuesday, the weather in Bakuriani, Georgia, is actually good, as are the conditions. A dreamy day. The day Mathilde Gremaud wants to win gold at the World Slopestyle Championship – and it will.

After all the weather-related waiting, “the worst qualifier of my life,” as she says, she gets going, floats, dances and jumps over ramps and obstacles. Everything works.

The first run is a real announcement, a statement. As a qualifier, she always starts last, and when the penultimate athlete falls before her, she knows victory is hers. With the Swiss flag and a lot of style, she rides down the last rails and jumps into the second run. Gremaud is there. After Olympic gold, the 23-year-old now adds the world title. craziness!

“Success in the Olympics took some of the pressure off me. I could really enjoy this in Georgia. I’m just having fun,” she says happily.

The Fribourger’s Palmarès is impressive: three gold, four silver and one bronze X-Games medals already hanging in her home, plus a complete Olympic medal set and now one silver and one gold each at world championships.

emotional exhaustion

Gremaud also impressed the men. She was the first woman to do a double cork 1440 bill. And that at just 20 years old. Some pros still can’t make this jump even after years of training.

But Gremaud also knows the other side of the coin. She was “emotionally exhausted” after her Olympic victory in Beijing in 2022. A concussion just before and the struggle to even attend the games are taking their toll. The title puts her in a hole stretching over the summer in the new season and forces the Fribourg native to take a break after the big air event in Chur.

“I needed some time for myself – and then I also sought an exchange with my environment, my parents,” says Gremaud. She has made some adjustments in her private life and has also learned to communicate better. Some “cool conversations” would have given her new strength.

And how! After the break, the 23-year-old returns to take silver in slopestyle at the X-Games in Aspen. She sets herself a new, big goal: the world title. In preparation for Georgia, she flies to Japan with friends for a skiing holiday: clear her head, gather strength, focus. Exactly the right tactic, it turns out.

“We’re Not in the Spotlight”

It is not entirely clear how this world title will affect their level of consciousness. After Olympic gold in Beijing in 2022, her success was widely recognized, especially in German-speaking Switzerland. But the crowds quickly ebbed away. Gremaud was a bit disappointed by this: “Our sport is not in the spotlight, but the spotlight has to come with the results,” says the former student of sports boarding school Engelberg, who speaks perfect German.

Yet she can make a living from her sport. «It’s nice when you can make money with your passion. But I don’t do it all to make money, but because I think it’s cool.” She also likes to promote herself at major events, as well as her sport: “I hope our successes will inspire the younger generation.”

Source : Blick