How Kilian Jornet "revolutionized" the ultra-trail during the UTMB 2008

• At 34, Kilian Jornet is making his big comeback this Friday (6 p.m.) on the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (171 km, 10,000 m of elevation gain).

• The star of the discipline, which is unanimous today, had seen his first coronation in the UTMB 2008 be hotly contested.

• “It was science fiction to see this 20-year-old kid arrive and revolutionize trail running by dismantling everyone in less than 21 hours of racing,” summarizes Team Salomon manager Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent.

When he crossed the finish line of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc 2008, one hour ahead of his first pursuer, Kilian Jornet realized “a childhood dream”.

Except that the young Catalan had to wait more than half a day before being declared the winner of the UTMB by the organization, via an official press release.

The reason ?

The trail planet was not at all ready to be shaken up like this by the first stroke of a 20-year-old phenomenon in ultra.

So much so that Kilian Jornet, who will try this Friday (6 p.m.) to race towards his fourth victory in the UTMB (171 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain now, against 166 km in 2008), was not entitled to the triumphant arrival he deserved, on August 30, 2008 in Chamonix (Haute-Savoie).

Just before this bib number 4048, then totally unknown to the general public, presented itself with a Catalan flag in hand, the race announcer also warned the spectators that checks had to be carried out on it, because doubts surrounded his final victory.

But what doubts exactly?

In a first press release entitled "Preserving the authenticity of the race and fairness at all costs", the management of the UTMB recalled shortly after the end of the race that Kilian Jornet had completed the Tour du Mont-Blanc "with more one hour ahead of the organizers' forecasts" (at 8:57 p.m.).

Access to this content has been blocked to respect your choice of consent

By clicking on "

", you accept the deposit of cookies by external services and will thus have access to the content of our partners

I ACCEPT

"We had in front of us a beautiful athlete who broke the codes"

“To guarantee the authenticity and fairness of the race, the official results will be postponed until tomorrow, following multiple complaints.

The organization takes the time to check its accuracy", explained the text without further details, except by revealing that a 15-minute penalty had sanctioned the trail runner during the race, due to the presence of a "external accompaniment to the Col des Montets".

This vagueness maintained by the management of the UTMB had enough to embitter the Spanish prodigy, who could not immediately celebrate his first coronation in Chamonix.

"I don't think he lived that moment very well, but neither did we," recalls Catherine Poletti, co-founder of the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

We had against us a beautiful athlete who broke the codes and we had nothing against him.

But for the credibility of the UTMB, we had to be fair to all the other runners.

“Because the largest ultra-trail event in the world had just imposed in 2008 on all participants a list of compulsory equipment.

And that's where Kilian Jornet, experienced despite his young age in the quest for the lightest equipment in ski mountaineering, stood out with a

in minimalism.

Child-sized windbreaker and mini gas station gloves

“He played with the total optimization of the regulations which were not precise enough at the time, especially concerning the sizes, confides Catherine Poletti.

And where riders normally had a 9-litre bag due to mandatory equipment, it was far from it.

“Judge rather the malice of the fellow, that lists the president of UTMB Group.

• "His survival blanket was a 10cm by 10cm square, I don't know what he could have protected with that."

• "He had removed the zipper and seams from his windbreaker."

• "He didn't have a backpack but a fanny pack with a water bladder under his T-shirt."

• "His windbreaker was child's size, and he had taken mini gas station gloves and not warm gloves, as the regulations only mentioned mandatory gloves", adds his former partner at Salomon Thomas Lorblanchet.

• “It was indicated that a water reserve was compulsory, but it was not specified that it had to be filled.

  So Kilian, who was used to drinking little in ski mountaineering, emptied it and was content to drink in the aid stations, ”continues Thomas Lorblanchet.

Add to that his Salomon Speedcross 1 shoes not designed for such distances, which weigh 250 g and not 400 g like the classic ultra shoes, and you will understand why the boy was a UFO in 2008 on such an extreme race, and subject to great caution on the material side.

A clarified regulation from the next edition

His "quest for the tiniest gram" led to him being stopped eight times during the race by volunteers convinced that he did not have his compulsory equipment.

So he lost about 40 minutes with all those stops.

A heavy handicap to which must therefore be added the 15 minute penalty.

"We received photo proof that he had been accompanied by someone who gave him a drink outside the assistance areas," said Catherine Poletti.

Yes, you are calculating correctly, for his first participation in the UTMB, Kilian Jornet would therefore have been able to win without all these misadventures, 2 hours ahead of his runner-up Dawa Sherpa, famous Nepalese runner and first winner of the event in 2003.

Before the 2009 edition, the rules are obviously clarified to no longer allow Kilian Jornet to run so light.

The backpack becomes compulsory, and the weight of the equipment must no longer be less than 2 kg.

The Catalan athlete therefore knows what to expect when he aims for the double at 21 years old.

On the other hand, he does not imagine undergoing this time "an unfriendly anti-doping control, at the start and at the end of the race" (dixit Catherine Poletti), piloted by the French Agency for the Fight against Doping (AFLD) and the gendarmerie.

“Kilian had been treated rough on his control”

“Other runners have them every year at random, and this already at the time, but we felt that in the case of Kilian, it was very thorough, continues the president of UTMB Group.

They even got a little hard on him.

I remember he was treated rough, and this time the organization couldn't help it.

“Three years after the resounding doping scandal of the Puerto affair in cycling, the second coronation of the Spanish trail runner, again one hour ahead of his first pursuer (Sébastien Chaigneau), raises questions.

And this even if, as in 2008, his domination over the UTMB is in no way discredited by the results of this doping control.

This thwarted romance between Kilian Jornet and the ultra queen race comes partly from a misunderstanding.

Namely this generalized impression that he arrived out of nowhere at the end of the 2000s. He was however already world junior skyrunning champion, double title holder of the renowned Zegama-Aizkorri marathon (in less than 4 hours), and winner in March 2008 of his first Pierra Menta (10,000 m of elevation gain in ski mountaineering).

“We used to say that trail running was a sport for old people”

"At that time, we weren't following the ski mountaineering elites," acknowledges Catherine Poletti.

So inevitably, Kilian had surprised us on the UTMB 2008. It was said that trail running was a sport for old people, with practitioners having an average of 42 years old, and even a double winner of 58 years old just before Kilian, the Italian Marco Olmo.

He gave this discipline the magic impulse of youth.

A triumphant youth that had already been fully perceived by Team Salomon, integrated by Kilian Jornet a year earlier.

One of its members, the 2009 world trail running champion Thomas Lorblanchet recounts his first steps with the phenomenon.

He was not yet 20 when I met him but he already had more experience in the mountains and in hostile environments than Marco Olmo.

During an international course with Salomon in February 2008, we realized the great difference between our practice of trail running and his.

We were already drowning in protocols established by our peers while Kilian was in another prism: he analyzed everything and he took no material.

We all embarked on a 40 km outing with backpacks and pipettes, except Kilian, because he had spotted that there was a stream in the middle of our route to cool off.

»

“As if a guy was serving at 300 km/h for his first Wimbledon”

Trail running will forever be turned upside down by the advent of the man who is quickly nicknamed “the ultra-terrestrial”.

“It was science fiction to see this kid arrive and revolutionize the trail by dismantling everyone in less than 21 hours of racing, summarizes Team Salomon manager Jean-Michel Faure-Vincent.

It's like a guy serving at 300 km/h for his first Wimbledon.

There would necessarily be controls on his racket, right?

The time is over for suspicions concerning the performance of Kilian Jornet, winner a third time (in 2011) in Chamonix, where the romance had not started as well as possible.

Third in this famous 2008 edition, Julien Chorier confirms: “His relationship was immediately complicated with the UTMB.

Besides, I would have bet on the fact that he never returns to this race”.

But Kilian Jornet needs the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc and its 10,000 participants in all the races, especially this year when he is trying to promote his own brand, NNormal.

And the reverse is just as true.

Considering how much he is considered the GOAT of the ultra today, this mixed memory of 2008 makes you smile.

“Some even thought he had cut the road somewhere to save time, recalls Thomas Lorblanchet.

For them, it was not possible for a 20-year-old kid to win the UTMB with a fanny pack.

Those who filed a complaint at the time are the first to praise it today.

“Kilian Jornet (34 years old) finally had only to abandon his fanny pack to win unanimous support.

Sport

Ultra-trail: The last "race of the century" between Kilian Jornet and François D'Haene on the Hardrock 100?

Lyons

Ski mountaineering: Who is Kilian Jornet, the mountain star?

• ultra trail

• Trail

• Kilian Jornet

• Mont Blanc

• Chamonix

• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

• Sport