2024-08-08 06:11:37
A few more moments – and she was already standing next to her lover.
“I didn’t look very hard. I think he was a little upset because he wanted to do better. I said that it’s cool, now the fight begins,” the 28-year-old cyclist smiled after the selection competition. V. Lendel had reached the next stage.
At the Paris Olympic Games, the cycling track pair have different tasks, but they have already recorded a special achievement – M.Lendel, previously inflected with the last name of Miglė Marozaitė, made her debut in the team sprint race together with Viktorija Krupeckaite at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
This time, her husband V.Lendelis made his debut. M.Lendel is a member of the cycling team, doing support work, because she failed to qualify for the Olympic Games.
“I plan outings, I help from the mechanical side – I take care of the bike, the tires. I’ll give you a drink, a towel. Every thing is included in the result, so I try to do everything as best as possible”, said M. Lendel.
Both Vasilijus and Migle have repeatedly said that dedication to cycling requires great sacrifices. One of them is family life. Two years ago, the couple had a son, Lukas. He watches his father’s Olympic debut in the village at his grandmother’s. There is no doubt – Vasilij misses his son because he went to train in Switzerland even before the Olympics.
“I rested very well,” M. Lende laughed. – Ten years together – day after day of training, competitions, everything. We were maybe bored with each other, but I rested and I want him to come home, help with the child, because he is already starting to talk. Vasily had not seen it yet. Am looking forward to. We will rest, have a vacation and the world championship awaits in October. We’ll rest for a couple of weeks and we’ll both get to work – now me too.”
But being far from home is also a motivational tool to perform as well as possible at the Olympics.
“It’s encouraging that he’s still going up because he’s not a young athlete, but he has a lot of experience. Its strong point is the entrances. He himself has said that he doesn’t want to regret later that he didn’t do something, so he will give everything he can, M. Lendel said. “Vasilij is training in Switzerland, so he doesn’t see much of me or my son, so it would be a shame to miss the opportunity.”
Her words were interrupted from time to time by the very loud roar of the fans. The Olympic velodrome, known as the pride of French cycling, simply thundered with emotion. The assembled French paid special attention to themselves, but also applauded others who achieved excellent results.
This atmosphere is familiar to Migle.
“The velodrome has been tried and seen many times, so it is quite familiar to both me and Vasilij. It’s very beautiful and surprises me every time. It’s always a good feeling to be back here. The atmosphere is good, there are a lot of people – nice”, she smiled.
Ms. Lendel says frankly that seeing her husband at the Paris Games gives her much more excitement than when she competes herself. They say that when you drive yourself, you know what you are doing, and when you watch someone else, you get an extra thrill. But among those feelings is also pride.
“Of course. It’s a lot of fun, I’m very happy, because everything is despite the difficulties that have accompanied us for the past two years. We changed the coach, there were many uncertainties. We are very happy that both I and Vasilij could train in Switzerland,” she said.
It was the training in Switzerland that opened up new opportunities for Vasilii.
“We have the best training partners in the world. Now former world record holder Nicholas Paul is training with him. He has the best partners, the conditions are the highest. Everything for today is great,” she said.
When Lendel spoke, the world and Olympic records had already been broken twice in the men’s sprint individual race.
Australia’s Matthew Richardson first broke the record in 9.091 seconds, and soon the arena erupted with applause for the second time when Tokyo gold winner and absolute favorite Harrrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands broke the record by 0.003 seconds.
“It’s not surprising, because two days ago, 5 world records fell in 4 hours in the women’s team sprint. No one is surprised anymore. I thought H. Lavreysen would go down in less than 9 seconds, but he didn’t. Two world records in 5 minutes is something like that,” said M. Lendel.
2024-08-08 06:11:37