The Frenchman won a second medal in two races, in the super-G, on Thursday, at the Courchevel-Méribel 2023 Worlds.
Freed from a weight, and relieved to be at the height in front of his public. Alexis Pinturault has been living again since the start of the 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships, which take place, for the men’s events, in Courchevel, his resort. “The child of the country”, who has just signed, Thursday, February 9, his eighth career podium in Worlds with the bronze medal in super-G, has once again become the cador of the white circus with 34 World Cup victories. And this revival seems to be taking shape in speed events (super-G and downhill).
Initially a technician (slalom and giant), need we remember that the native of Moûtiers (Savoie) quickly became one of the most versatile skiers on the circuit? Quadruple winner of the combined globe (super-G and slalom), already bronze in super-G at the previous Worlds in Cortina (2021), he has even already climbed to the top of the box in this discipline, in the World Cup , in March 2014, in Lenzerheide (Switzerland). “The last Frenchman to win in the super-G was him, so he always had the potential for it“, reminded the boss of the French men’s alpine ski team, David Chastan, in the arrival racket after the podium ceremony.
If the main interested party assured that he did not necessarily expect such a performance on Thursday, this bronze medal and his title on the combined, two days earlier, already built around the super-G are ultimately not huge surprises. Speed has always had an important place in his thinking and in his career. And when the planets align, as since Tuesday on this track of the Eclipse which suits him so well, Alexis Pinturault can aim very high.
Lowering ? “It’s a good conversion!”
To the point, today, of seeing it line up more downhill in particular? “This perhaps comforts me a little more in this perspective.replied Alexis Pinturault at a press conference. I don’t say this ‘choice’, because it’s not one that I’ve made, but in this perspective, it encourages me, yes. I have a lot of fun in super-G, I’ve always had a lot of it downhill too. I don’t, because you have to make choices. But it’s not impossible that at the end of my career, I have the motivation to go a little more downhill.”
“I think we do him good and in the future I would like him to be with us even more often,” has also teased Yannick Bertrand, one of the coaches of the tricolor men’s speed, who had just arrived at the bottom of the track, a blue-white-red flag in hand. Very comfortable in super-G this winter, and less and less placed in slalom (only one top 5 this season in seven races contested), Alexis Pinturault, who will never let go of his favorite race which is the giant, will have to leave the second technical discipline aside anyway if he really wants to convert.
“When you really do the whole speed circuit, with training, it’s clearly something else, and you have to make strong choices, explains Xavier Fournier-Bidoz, the boss of the specialty for the French. Will he do them? It is he who will decide. But it’s a wonderful idea to end a career by changing like that ! I think he wants to win a downhill, he’s already said that. But he will have to give himself the means, because it is still different from the super-G. It’s a good conversion.“
One thing is sure, all the lights are green to see the Courchevel skier more regularly engaged in speed events, and particularly downhill. Moreover, as our consultant Luc Alphand explains, it is “easier to go from technique to speed when you get older“. With age, technical specialists can adapt to the demands of speed (endurance, mental strength). The reverse is not true, technical events, such as slalom and giant slalom, requiring a explosiveness that decreases as an athlete ages.
On the other hand, the road is still long to see one day the “Beast” of Moûtiers winner of a descent. “You have to be mentally readyalso warns the former triple winner of the specialty globe. Not everyone succeeds, but Alexis, like Marco Schwarz, does well. However, I don’t know yet if he will become a great downhiller. He may not have the glide for that.“Only time will tell, and obviously, at almost 32 years old, Alexis Pinturault is determined to prolong the pleasure. In technique, as in speed.
