Oriol Cardona Coll pioneers with Olympic gold medal
After Oriol Cardona Coll stood on the podium with his first Olympic gold medal in ski mountaineering last February, the moment he reunited with his father was profoundly emotional. âYou did it. Youâve achieved it,â Oriol heard from his dad, Joan. âI remember his voice vividlyâ, the Olympic champion says. âIt was thick with pride. My family knows how much I had been working towards this, and how much dedication and effort it cost me. Celebrating with him was very, very emotional.â
Text: Sjors Beukeboom. Photos: Cecilia Bellomo.
Oriolâs dad, Joan Cardona Coll is a pioneer in winter sports, a dedicated ski mountaineer and above all a father of a tight-knit Catalan family who introduced his children to the joys of winter sports long before ski mountaineering was recognized as an Olympic discipline.
Nearly three decades later, Oriol Cardona Coll himself found himself standing on top of the podium in Milano-Cortina, earning Spain’s first winter Olympic gold medal in 54 years and the first-ever Olympic medal in ski mountaineering.
Gran Paradiso
The two Olympic medals (Oriol Cardona Coll also secured a bronze in the mixed relay alongside fellow Catalan ski mountaineers) mark a pinnacle in the career of the 31-year-old athlete. However, they were not dreams he harbored as a child. âThe dreams came later,â reflects Oriol, who was born in Banyoles. âAs I grew older and began to set goals, thatâs when I was able to shape my own path. Thatâs when I truly started dreaming, especially when we learned that ski mountaineering would be part of the Olympics.â
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His early childhood sports experience was mostly about enjoyment rather than the pursuit of fame and medals. The vivid image of Oriol and his father, along with family friends, enjoying a moment together in the Rifugio Vittoria Emanuele II on Gran Paradiso (a 4,000-meter peak in the Alps) encapsulates this spirit. The cozy wood-stoked cabin seems to as a refuge from the elements outside, with laughter and camaraderie echoing within. Among them, Oriol and his dad Joan, as well as a family friends of them, but also Kilian Jornet, his parents and his sister.
The bond between Jornet and Cardona Coll goes way back and will remain much longer. Once childhood friends traveling, competing, and enjoying the mountains side by side, they have now carved their separate paths in the sport. Yet, Oriol looks to Kilian not just as a friend but as a trainer and catalyst for pushing his boundaries. âKilian helps me explore my limits,â Oriol remarks, âand with him by my side, I realize I havenât truly found my limits yet.â
Oriol Cardona Coll –Â Trajectory
âFor an athlete, the journey is a continuous process: day by day, improvement by improvement,â he explains. âPhysiologically, everyone has their ceiling, but I still feel like Iâm progressing. I havenât reached my limits yet,â says the Catalan athlete, who spent his formative years in Banyoles until he turned 18.
Exploring those limits is what sets Cardona Coll on a well-charted trajectory. He expresses how hard, nearly-impossible, it is to deviate from that clear path.
What is ski mountaineering:
Ski mountaineering demands both explosive speed and precise transitions, each sprint lasting just over three minutes in a blend of stamina and strategy. Athletes ascend vertically on skis before switching to descents, racing towards the finish line across two intense rounds to secure a place in the final. To prepare for this challenging winter sport, training through running and cycling in the summer has proven useful.
Reflecting on his journey, Cardona Coll, a double world champion and now Olympic gold medalist, is not considering changing his trajectory at any moment, though he acknowledges that there is a life before and after the Olympic success. âI believe my life has changed because of these Games. Life evolves, and so do my goals and the way I live,â he explains. âThis experience has certainly created a before and after, however, I donât think day-to-day life will change dramatically, as the essence of what I love, training and competing, remains unchanged. Iâll continue doing that, mainly in Font Romeu, where I currently live, because thatâs what truly fulfills me and brings me happiness in my life,â he shares.
However, Cardona Coll did experience moments of emptiness during the celebrations following his Olympic success. âAfter the Games, there was a moment, for a few days, when I felt a bit low,â he admits, revealing the human side to the victorious athlete. âMy emotions were all over the place, my adrenaline was spiking, and while the joy was immense. Itâs normal to have some down days after such a roller coaster experience.â
Following the footsteps
There in Font Romeu, there is snow, mostly sunny conditions in winter and summer, sleeping and training above 1700 meters altitude and where he will continue putting at least 20 hours per week into his athleteâs body, particularly in the summer when maintaining fitness for the winter matters most, together with other elite athletes that also come for training there.
It is there where Cardona Coll will continue following the foot steps of his pioneering dad, that was utmost proud seeing his son winning the first possible gold medals in the ski mountaineering sport. âI think what made it particularly emotional that first moment of seeing him after having won is that without my family and my father, I wouldnât have discovered the mountains in the first place. I wouldnât have built that circle of friends that later became some of the best athletes, and I wouldnât have developed this passion for the snowy peaks. Lastly, if I hadnât joined the training center, I wouldnât have seen Kilianâs ambition or competitive spirit by being on the same team with him.â
âAnyway, the main thing that comes to mind when I think about my past and my youth are all the moments that have ended up bringing me to where I am today. In the end, itâs a lot of moments and a lot of people who, one way or another, shape who I am today. And really, that passion for the mountains, which started so long ago, has been what allowed me to keep training and reach the point today where I could win a gold medal.â
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