PHOTO: Bildbyrån
We all remember Johan Olsson’s classic five mile race in 2013, right?
The Swede then took home an impressive gold medal in Val di Fiemme.
But despite the incredible effort he then stood for, it is another race in his career that hits higher.
Johan Olsson, 42, has, among other things, two SM golds, two WC golds and two Olympic golds on his track record. He saved one of the WC golds in 2013 in a race that will always remain in Swedish sports history when he completed a super race over five miles in the Italian Val di Fiemme.
Champion at the “wrong distance”
But despite that classic race in 2013, there is another race that Johan Olsson himself actually holds slightly higher, even though it may be hard to imagine.
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Two years after that gold in 2013, it was once again time for the WC, this time at home in Falun. But there the title as world champion would be defended at a different distance, namely 15 kilometers instead of 50.
– I built a lot of my dreams around trying to defend my five-mile gold. It would have been a huge milestone to manage to be world champion for so long. And that was the case even though I became champion at the “wrong distance” in Falun, Olsson has previously said in an interview with Längd.se.
“The biggest thing in my career”
Because of course he would become world champion again, albeit at a different distance after he “only” finished third in the five-mile.
– The five mile was what I had aimed for and the fact that I did not manage to defend the gold despite being in excellent shape created a bottomless disappointment. The conditions were against me that day where it was extremely wet and extremely heavy. It was impossible to be first, he says.
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But in the 15 kilometer freestyle it was a success. Johan Olsson had a brilliant race and won 18 seconds ahead of the Frenchman Maurice Manificatand thus took home the second WC gold of his career.
– I had a brilliant race. The last three kilometers were extremely good. They are hard riding, where it is curvy and easy riding where you have to go very fast. I felt when I was sitting in that driver’s seat that they had to go really fast for them to beat me, he says.
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The race is also the race that feels the most to Olsson when he looks back on his successes.
– Winning that gold in Falun is the biggest emotional thing in my career. Winning at home is something you dream of as a little boy, no matter what sport you play. That’s what happens when you imitate the cheers of the crowd and kick a football against a wall. To then be able to stand there in front of 50,000 spectators with your arms in the sky and the crowd just roars with cheers, then you realize afterwards that I will never get to experience this again. It really was a dream come true, concludes Olsson.