After the Olympic parenthesis, the Alpine from Gressoney is looking to the season finale starting next weekend in Lahti, where in 2015 he won in the same format, the 15 km classic.
Gressoney-Saint-Jean, Italy – Feb. 24th 2022 • Not even the time to unpack luggage from Beijing, which is already time to think about the next Scandinavian trip.
Francesco De Fabiani, at the end of a not completely positive Olympics' expedition, is already focused on upcoming events, the first of which will be next Sunday in Finland, in "his" Lahti, where seven years ago, it was 2015, he won his first (and currently unique in the individual format) World Cup event.
But let's take a few weeks back: the Olympics, together with the Tour de Ski, represented the seasonal goal, «a goal that I didn't fully achieve – says Defast – for several reasons. It was a very difficult edition of the Games, the competitions were at high altitude, the temperatures were extremely cold, the snow was slow and every day a lot of wind. Not exactly the ideal conditions».
The scheduling of the events of the Olympics, in hindsight, was perhaps not the best: «If we want to do a bit of self-criticism – adds the skier from Aosta Valley – maybe I should have better selected the events to participate in. Skiathlon, which in the end was the race where I expressed myself best, gave me an excellent eighth place, in the world elite of specialties, the top 10 is not a bad result at all, it also limited me in the performance of the following days. I accumulated too much fatigue and the physical effort did not give me the necessary brilliance in the 15 km, in which I fell in the second part. The Sprint qualification was perhaps little more than a test, while the relay did not give me the confirmations I was looking for, perhaps also due to not-so-performing skis. Team Sprint was the only real chance to go for the medal, but I couldn't do better. I gave 101%, I gave my all but it wasn't enough, that's sport».
Regarding the fact of not having raced the 50 km (28.5 km following the change of the FIS program due to the severe weather conditions), Defast goes straight to the point: «It made no sense to participate, the weather was really difficult, my condition was not at the top and insisting and filling my legs with fatigue just before the end of the season with the almost certainty of not achieving a result made me decide not to participate».
And speaking of the season finale, there is indeed the Finnish trip to face with the round in Lahti, where on Saturday there will be a Sprint, in which De Fabiani will not participate, and on Sunday the individual 15 Km in classic technique, the same format of Defast's victory in 2015: «I always have wonderful memories related to Lahti and to that day when I won in the Cup. The physical condition, however, given the latest tests, is not so bad and I am convinced that sooner or later all the work done during the year will come out. I didn't do the best Olympics, but I'm sure there is still a chance to do well, starting from Sunday».
After the race in Lahti, the World Cup will continue with the rounds in Oslo, Falun and then it should stop in Russia, but given the difficult moment, a change of location for the races could be possible.
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Press Office of Francesco De Fabiani
Written by Paolo Mei
Translated by Nicolò Caneparo
