A piece of his skis, maybe a spatula.
This Monday, Alexis Pintruault was this Monday on the verge of retaining his title in combined in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, two years after his coronation in Are (Sweden).
Only two fingers because the Austrian Marco Schwartz deprived him of this feat for four tiny hundredths of a second at the end of the slalom event.
“You have to put things in context, there is still money at the World Championships after a great fight between several athletes.
It necessarily makes you tick but that's how it is, you need a first and a second.
I had two very good races… Being at four hundredths, it feels weird but I must not stop on that ”, commented, fatalistic, the darling of Courchevel at the end of a crazy day that has concentrated the combined women's and men's events, letting slip two Super Gs and two slaloms, concentrating multiple emotions.
The counter of French victories at the Worlds in this discipline therefore remains blocked at seven (Emile Allais 1937, 1938, Guy Périllat 1960, Jean-Claude Killy 1966, 1968 Michel Vion 1982 and Alexis Pinturault 2019).
Pinturault, an exceptional track record
Alexis Pinturault had to settle for a silver medal in Italy.
On "a well prepared track you had to take risks", summed up a confident Alexis Pinturault at the
Eurosport
microphone
after the first round.
At the end of an extremely dense Super G, the Courchevel skier (bib 5) took 2nd place, 0''08 behind the surprising Canadian James Crawford.
Behind his back three Austrians (Vincent Kriechmayr at 0''22, Matthias Mayer at 0''24 and Marco Schwarz at 0''32) and three Swiss (Loïc Meillard at 0''35, Luca Aerni at 0''45 and Gino Caviezel at 0''48) determined to take advantage of the extent of their threat.
“Everything remains to be done”, summed up the Frenchman, aware of the grouped danger which did not offer him the slightest margin during a slalom which promised to be extremely open.
And which was because Schwartz, untenable between the close pickets, got everyone to agree by leaving Pinturault somewhat unsatisfied.
Despite this "failure" Pinturault, remains a formidable magnet for medals.
Solid leader of the World Cup (with 225 points ahead of Switzerland's Marco Odermatt), he has the best success rate.
In 27 high-level combined (World Cup, World and Olympic Games) he collected 15 podiums, including 10 victories, recalls Ski Chrono.
An event which also offered him a silver medal at the Olympic Games, in 2018 in Pyeongchang.
There are its benchmarks and its habits.
Even if, health context requires, the combined disappeared this year from the World Cup calendar but remains invited to major events.
Two more possibilities for world titles this week
At 29, Alexis Pinturault is a mature skier.
With 33 World Cup victories which illustrates the full range of his talent, between speed and technique (17 giant slalom, 10 combined, 3 slaloms, 1 Super G, 1 parallel slalom, 1 city event).
Since the departure of the Austrian Marcel Hirscher, the French have been competing with the best to take up the torch.
Always determined to progress in order to carve with passion his mark towards victory.
In Cortina d'Ampezzo, the versatile Frenchman still has two opportunities to shine with the giant slalom (Friday) and the slalom (Sunday) to expand his collection and leave his mark on these Worlds.
Read also
Worlds: Pinturault started very well after the combined super-G