Paris 2024 Olympic Games 🇫🇷 8th place and an Olympic diploma for Stefan Küng in the ITT. 📷 @frontalvision #swissolympicteam #swisscyclingteam
"Two big things missing are the rainbow bands and an Olympic medal" - Can Stefan Küng get closer to completing career goals in Olympic road race?
CyclingWednesday, 31 July 2024 at 19:00
Although widely renowned as a time trial specialist, Stefan Küng has proven in the past he is more than capable of competing in the biggest one day races, including a trio of top-5 finishes in the last three editions of Paris-Roubaix.
Whilst the cobbles seen in Paris-Roubaix won't be on the cards in the road race of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games on Saturday, August 3rd, Küng will be flying the flag of Switzerland as part of a two-pronged attack alongside UAE Team Emirates' recent Czech Tour winner, Marc Hirschi.
Speaking to Rouleur ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics getting underway, the 30-year-old of Groupama - FDJ admitted that despite his glistening palmares, Küng still desires a so far elusive Olympic medal. "For the time being I’m more motivated than ever to be the best athlete I can be. I’m proud of my palmarès so far but the two big things missing are the rainbow bands and an Olympic medal," he explains. "Maybe they’ll come this summer? Whatever happens, I know at home I’ll have some great Swiss cheese and chocolate waiting for me. And bread – my lifelong afternoon snack is bread and chocolate. Those are things I couldn't live without."
"There’s one thing that has been both a help and a hindrance to me during my career: my Swiss mentality. Us Swiss are modest, reserved, we don’t discuss our problems, and neither do we want to be in the spotlight – so when we are we bat it away," he writes. "When I signed my first good contract, my mum pleaded with me not to buy an expensive car. “What would people think?” she said. We worry about others a lot, and, though Fabian Cancellara and Roger Federer were exceptions, we’d never say we are going to be the best in the world. If we did we’d be called cocky and arrogant. “How dare you,” people would say. Instead, we downgrade ourselves in sport and I think that handicaps us."
Kung in action at the 2023 Glasgow World Championship road race
Nevertheless, every time he pulls on the Swiss jersey, he does so with immense pride. "This mindset definitely hinders us in road racing because to win you’ve got to play the role of an arsehole: you need to flick other people, you’ve got to be sneaky and play dead sometimes, and have really big self-confidence. But that’s not how we’re raised – we’re taught to be nice to everyone, to say please and thank you, to never go behind anyone’s back, and to stay true to the rules and regulations. I’d like to not pull if the other guys won’t, be more prepared to go down together, but that’s harder for me with my Swiss mentality. I can do the physical training and the suffering side of it all quite easily, but the mind games and deploying smarter tactics is something I have to work hard at – it’s not easy. If I was more of an arsehole, I think I would have won more races. But I do also think that this mentality of striving for perfection, being a hard worker and calculating power and figures is one of the main reasons why my forte is time trialling and why Switzerland has had so many good time triallists," he concludes. "I have to say: I’m really proud of being Swiss and I honestly wouldn’t want to live or have been brought up anywhere else."
Küng's first chance and arguably his best opportunity at a medal came and went last weekend in the individual time trial as the Swiss finished 8th overall, 1:35 down on the eventual gold medal winner and time trial world champion, Remco Evenepoel.
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