“As if I were alone in the world.” in the video, Olympic mountain bike champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevo tells about her victory.

The silence, the concentration, the feeling of being alone in the world. And suddenly the noise, the crowd and awareness. “When I crossed the line, I saw all these people, I saw all this audience, and I cried because I knew I had done it.” This is how Pauline Ferrand-Prevo, the new Olympic mountain bike champion, told us about her moment of victory, which she won on Sunday, July 28, on the Elancourt hill in Yvelines. The very thing that geographers call the Hill of Revenge, and where the athlete came to find himself.

“It’s like I’m alone in the world”

Madame Figaro The rider was met the day after his race on the journey from his sponsor Danone’s headquarters to the Trocadero, where an excited crowd was waiting to congratulate him. It is also a time to look back on two years of intense preparation. After a difficult setback in Tokyo 2020, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot entered the Paris Games more armed than ever.

“I asked myself. “What do you need to win?” he says. A new beginning, no doubt. “PFP”, as the public nicknames him, changes teams, coaches and bikes, surrounds himself with a psychiatrist and a psychotherapist to strengthen his mind as much as his body.

A crushing victory

“I questioned everything a little bit and my choices paid off.” Obviously. Throughout the race, the French athlete seemed to fly over the track and dominate the competition with ease. “I was really 100% focused on my performance,” he admits. I feel like I’m alone in the world. It’s an extraordinary feeling.”

Gaps she can’t see, but they widen until she crosses the finish line, nearly three minutes ahead of American Haley Batten, who finished second ahead of Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds. And what’s next? “PFP” has already announced. he will hang up the mountain bike and get back on his road bike by the end of the year. A trip to the Tour de France. The last title he misses out on.