When it counts, she's there: she's already been world and European champion, and now Marianne Fatton is also an Olympic champion. The 30-year-old from Neuchâtel can hardly believe it herself.
19.02.2026, 17:56
19.02.2026, 18:18
SDA
Emotions run high at the medal ceremony. Marianne Fatton thinks of her boyfriend, who has been training her for years, and of his father, who built a staircase right next to her home to simulate the competition. And she thinks of her great role model: her mother. Anna Janouskova, as she was called at the time, competed as a Czechoslovakian cross-country skier at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville. A good three and a half years later, her daughter Marianne was born.
Her father, a former mountain runner, also influenced her athletically. However, the images of her mother on skis, who took her and her brothers everywhere, are particularly vivid in Fatton's mind. "She was so strong that the Olympic Games seemed unattainable for me," says Fatton. It was precisely this feeling that always drove her.
Especially since the ski touring race was added to the Olympic program in 2021. This gave Fatton the unexpected opportunity to become an Olympian too. "I am so proud to have her as my mother and that she gave me the passion for the sport."
Always ready on day X
Now Fatton is not only following in her mother's footsteps, she is writing her own Olympic history. In the final, the Swiss skier leaves the big favorite Emily Harrop from France behind thanks to a perfect transition before the downhill. The intensively practiced transitions made the difference at this moment. "I told myself that I had to keep at it until the last climb," explains Fatton. "And that my moment would come after that."
Last year, when Harrop, who is two years younger, was considered almost unbeatable, Fatton defeated her in the decisive race of the season and became world champion in Morgins. Two years earlier, she had won the European title. These are her only three sprint victories in the last three winters: European Championships, World Championships and now the Olympics. When it comes to titles, Fatton delivers.
"I have stopped thinking"
"I don't know how I do it myself," she says about her exceptional record at major events. Before the final, she tried to think back to last year's World Championships to find the recipe for success. "But I couldn't find an answer. So I stopped thinking and said to myself: just run." That's exactly what she did, and ran to gold.
"Have maximum fun, give everything and have no regrets." Fatton had set herself this goal before the Olympic competition. A plan that worked out perfectly.
