Breaking a world record in a scientific discipline is certainly a special moment for an athlete. But when this happens at the start of a season marked by the biggest international meeting in the sport, it is quite promising. Timothy Loubineaud’s scream when he crossed the line as winner in Salt Lake City (Utah, United States), Friday, November 14, proved this.
Three months before the Milan-Cortina Winter Games (6-22 February 2026), the French athlete lowered the 5,000 meter benchmark, at the inaugural round of the Speed Skating World Cup, the first event to count towards quota allocation through a special classification for Olympic qualification.
The 29-year-old native of Arcachon (Gironde), completed his twelve and a half laps around the ring that was the venue of the 2002 Olympics in a time of 6 minutes 00 seconds 23. Seven seconds better than his best performance over the distance, 1 second 23 less than Nils Van Der Poel’s mark (6 minutes 1 second 56, 3 December 2021), set a few weeks before the Beijing 2022 Olympics, where the Swede offers himself a double gold medal in 5,000 m and 10,000 m numbers. The latter was also the first to send him a congratulatory message: “Now you are the GOAT” (The Greatest of All Time, “now you are the greatest of all time”).
“I plan to run at 6:10”
A feat that Timothy Loubineaud himself did not expect, as he never even came close to the podium over the distance. “We don’t have any tracks in France, and I’m not the most talented either, at least I don’t feel like I’m the most talented skater on the planet.he told the International Skating Union, the international federation. Honestly, when I woke up this morning, I planned to run at 6:10 am with my trainer. »
And to continue: “I started the race without worrying about the time (…) After a few laps, I don’t know what happened, but I felt so good that I kept accelerating and increasing my speed. Truly extraordinary. Then I realized that I could break the world record when I saw the crowd getting enthusiastic and my coach screaming. I think maybe my legs are a little fitter than expected. »
He achieved his third victory in the World Cup – the previous two victories came in mass start events, in Nagano (Japan) in November 2024 and in Calgary (Canada) in January 2025. This success made him dream of his first participation in the Olympic Games, he who took the first steps on the ice in 2017, after many years of roller skating, precisely with the hope of taking part, one day, in the Olympic high mass.
