Matthias Kyburz is an eight-time world champion, but will be running outside the medal ranks in Paris. The fact that the orienteer will be able to realize his Olympic dream is down to a series of lucky coincidences.
10.08.2024, 05:00
10.08.2024, 09:11
SDA
The man from Fricktal has been running over hill and dale, through forests and winding alleyways for decades. Everyone in the orienteering scene knows about his running abilities. But even Kyburz himself could not answer the question "How fast am I really?
The second reason why Kyburz is running the Olympic marathon at the age of 34 has to do with his orienteering palmarès. The long-time world number 1 has won almost everything there is to win. But only almost. He is still missing the title in the supreme long-distance discipline. And since the World Orienteering Federation divided the world championships into the urban and forest disciplines a few years ago, 2024 was free. It won't be until 2025 at the World Championships in Finland that Kyburz will be looking to close the last gap in his palmarès.
Under Röthlin's guidance
Kyburz wanted to tackle the marathon project professionally and ended up with coach Viktor Röthlin. The 2007 World Championship bronze medallist and 2010 European champion wrote the training plans, increased the distance from 120 to 180 km a week and managed the workload. And suddenly Olympic qualification was also on the agenda. Only two Swiss runners (Röthlin, Tadesse Abraham) had previously broken the required time of 2:08:10 hours; Kyburz was supposed to do it with just four months of preparation.
The day of truth came on April 7, at the marathon in Paris. In 2:07:44 hours, Kyburz answered the question 'How fast am I really? "I'm over the moon that it worked out," says Kyburz and is now looking forward to the reward of another marathon through Paris on Saturday morning. "I've already taken part in many major events, but the Olympics is the biggest."
Kyburz already had a point of reference with the Olympic Games before qualifying. He is an athlete representative on the Executive Board of Swiss Olympic and stepped down when a decision was made on his person at the request of Swiss Athletics.
Altitude meters like an orienteering race
For the 42.195 km on Saturday morning, the biology graduate makes no announcement regarding time or rank. The 436 meters of elevation gain that he will encounter will lead him to make the following statement: "I'm imagining a run in which I roll up the field from behind in the last 10 km."
