Jaqueline Mourão reaches eight Olympic Games still evolving in skiing

Jaqueline Mourão was seen as an “exotic” participant when she first attended the Winter Olympics in 2006.

Today, at 46, the skier sees herself better than ever in her sport, cross-country, and is a few days away from becoming the first athlete to represent Brazil in eight editions of the Games.

The miner first excelled in mountain biking before getting to know skiing and splitting between the two modalities – they turned into three when she included biathlon (a ski and shooting union) in her curriculum.

Jaqueline has already been to three summer Olympics (2004, 2008 and 2020) and four winter ones (2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018), in a total of seven also achieved by Robert Scheidt, Rodrigo Pessoa and Formiga.

The Beijing 2022 Winter Games, starting next Friday (4), will allow the skier to break that mark six months after cycling in Tokyo. The short break between the two editions was caused by the pandemic and made preparation even more challenging.

For her, the unprecedented feat will be achieved by an ordinary person, who persevered even without ever having been considered a sporting talent and has the breath for more.

Going to Paris-2024 in cycling is ruled out, but Milan-Cortina-2026, when he will be 50 years old, is a possibility for now. She still sees herself evolving in the snow, especially in the classic technique, in which the athlete walks along trails with parallel skis. In free technique, or skating, the open movements with the legs resemble those of skating.

“I just made my best mark in the classic style, which takes a long time to learn. If I can get to Cortina, it will be amazing”, he said, in an interview with Leaf, before leaving Canada. The Brazilian has lived in the country for at least half of the year since 2006.

In Beijing, where she arrived this Saturday (29), Jaqueline will participate in three events: 10 km classic, free speed and classic team speed. In the latter, he would have his pupil Bruna Moura, 27, as a partner, but she had an automobile accident and was replaced in the delegation by Eduarda Ribera, 17.

During the same period of the Games, Jaqueline will also run for a spot on the IOC (International Olympic Committee) athletes’ commission.

The eight Olympics mark

I always go year after year, listening to my body and my desires. I started being an athlete when I was 15, so there are more than 30 dedicated to the sport. Of course, it has its sacrifices, but it was never heavy enough for me to want to quit. I was never considered a sports talent, I always had to fight hard for my place in the sun, so I’m very happy with people who are inspired by my story. There’s the genetic part, the athlete’s development, but you need to want too much, have perseverance, learn from mistakes, know how to lose and seek to beat your own marks every day. All these values ​​led me to have these eight shares. For me, this brand means this: an ordinary person can achieve unprecedented feats.

Short break between games

In March 2020, I was competing in Brazil, but with the calendar suspended by the pandemic, I had to return to Canada. Without an Olympic goal, a high-performance athlete is left with the feeling of “what’s going on?”. I ended up dedicating myself much more and having overtraining [treinamento excessivo que leva à perda de performance] in July 2020. I stayed out of the Mountain Bike World Championship and the last stages of the World Cup in 2020 to be able to recalculate everything, make a good base to have a peak performance in March [de 2021], in the Ski World Championship, and another peak of performance in July, in the mountain bike [durante os Jogos]. Cross-country helps a lot in mountain biking preparation, and other athletes are in the habit of using winter as preparation for summer. Cross-country, on the other hand, is complicated because you have to work on balance and technique, which is more complex.

who knows the ninth

No mountain bike, [Tóquio] it was my last Olympic participation. If I do some tests, it will be just for fun, to be in contact with the public, but not in a professional way. Cross-country skiing is very peculiar. I started skiing late, at the age of 27 — I started biathlon after becoming a mother. I just made my best mark in the classic style of skiing in January, which takes a long time to learn. If I manage to get to Cortina, it will be amazing, or maybe just help classify the country with the points. My son Ian is 11 years old and theoretically in four years he would be eligible to compete in the Olympics. Of course, we still don’t talk about performance, being an athlete or not, he just plays in the snow, but he’s very strong and skis from an early age.

constant learning

There is still about 20% of learning to go in skiing. As in the classic style I didn’t have a very good technique, now that I’m able to choose skis with more performance. I am very strong in my legs because of cycling. With four years to focus on one sport, I’ll be able to work my upper body more. Usually people start with shorter races and go to marathons. In my case, because of the evolution in the technical part, I’m getting better and better in the shorter tests. I’m already outlier [conceito da estatística para um valor que foge do padrão] of a lot of things, maybe that’s it too.

Compete for the ‘exotic country’

In mountain biking, that mentality of wanting a result and a medal has always been more real. But in skiing, before, it was the exotic Jaque who was going to the Olympics. On my first one I didn’t even know how to put the ski on my feet. I needed my coach for everything and I could only do the most physically. There was this whole trajectory of moving from the idea of ​​”exotic country, Copacabana”, that you heard at the starting line, to being a competitive athlete, who is achieving podium in North America, in continental stages.

Athletes often make the mistake of focusing on others. He loses a race and thinks he did very poorly, he wins and thinks he did very well. In the Olympic movement, it’s not about winning, it’s about being stronger, about reaching higher. This fuel motivates me a lot. Always trying to do my best, represent my country in the best possible way. And that’s enough for me. Of course I would like to win a medal, to be at that level, but maybe everything I’m doing today will inspire a person in Brazil to reach the medal in the future.

Representation

I never liked sports bureaucracy, politics, I always stayed away. Even when it interferes directly with you. In 2008, a last-minute Olympic classification criterion was made in mountain biking, which made me very upset to the point of abandoning the sport. [ela mesmo assim se classificou para os Jogos de Pequim]. I returned ten years later still with this question of what it would be like if I had continued. At that time, I didn’t have the maturity to not let these things affect me. But when I came back and it was pretty much the same structure, I saw that it wouldn’t change if athletes didn’t start getting involved. If we don’t take care of this space, who will? Sport is very vulnerable in that sense, anyone can join a sports administration. At the IOC, I believe it’s the same fight, but on a global scale. As a Latin American, I want to fight for the rights of athletes in our region and be a voice there.

Jaqueline Mourão, 46

Born in Belo Horizonte, she was an Olympic athlete in mountain bike cycling in Athens-2004, Beijing-2008 and Tokyo-2020 and a bronze medalist at the Pan American Games in Lima-2019. In cross-country skiing, he participated in the editions of Turin-2006, Vancouver-2010, Sochi-2014 and PyeongChang-2018, in which he also competed in the biathlon. He is a member of the COB Athletes’ Commission and presides over those of the Brazilian Snow Sports Confederation and the Brazilian Cycling Confederation. Graduated in Physical Education and Master in Exercise Physiology from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG), she is the mother of two children.