This is the story of a comeback to the fore.
The giantist Tessa Worley returned to victory and her best feelings just before the Worlds in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy), where she is looking for a third world crown on Thursday.
She was not taken away from skiing for many months.
She never really left the Top 10 of the giant.
Tessa Worley did not come back out of nowhere, but she patiently regained 100% of her abilities, after having done a lot with the means of the moment and little attended the podium in recent months.
Injured in the right knee in December 2018, the skier from Grand Bornand then underwent two “small” cleaning operations in April 2019 and then in January 2020. Setbacks which have long prevented the best French giantist in history (14 Cup victories of the world) to express themselves fully.
"Last summer, I was rebuilding, I gained strength and confidence, more than the previous summer."
Tessa Worley
His second place in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia) and his victory at Kronplatz (Italy) in January over two full races, at maximum engagement, are an excellent signal.
“Last summer, I was rebuilding, I gained strength and confidence, more than the previous summer.
The progression continued through the winter, physically and mentally.
It's nice, I feel in the game, I have a lot of fun, she explains.
I have more confidence than before in myself, in the way I ski.
The state of mind has changed since the beginning of January, I am even more conqueror than usual, risk taking works more.
It's a virtuous circle. ”
While the discipline has a crazy density with younger skiers (Bassino, Shiffrin, Vlhova, Gut-Behrami, Brignone, Gisin ...), Worley proves at 31 years old that she is far from the exit.
"She is incredible, she is an exceptional athlete," admires the head of the giant group Lionel Pelicier.
“Despite the vagaries of the skier, such as injuries, she has always known how to rebuild herself, to question herself, to stay at this level.
She was sometimes worried.
Like any athlete, she wondered if she was going to be able to regain her level.
But its great quality is to never let go, to work, to build step by step to regain your level.
She always manages to do it. "
“In training she looks like she is 18 years old.
She's fresh, she's always looking, she always wants.
You have to slow it down rather than push it, ”he argues as an explanation for his ability to rebound.
Already two titles and three giant medals
A sign of his great confidence, Worley allowed himself to clinch third place in the individual parallel on Tuesday, after a 13th place in super-G last week.
Enough to become, with four podiums, the third French most medalist in the history of the Worlds after Marielle Goitschel (11) and Annie Famose (6), tied with Florence Steurer.
Her real goal advances Thursday with the giant, of which she has already won the title twice (2013 and 2017) and once bronze (2011).
Unlike the last tracks on which it shone in extreme conditions, the Olympia delle Tofane de Cortina - the giants use the bottom of the women's downhill slope - announces a gentler slope, a priori less to its advantage.
"There are ground movements, it's playful, then the bottom of the track is quite easy, even if it is not easy to create and then keep speed", she explains.
"It's a field that I also like a lot."
We can believe it.
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