Ski Worlds: Mathieu Faivre, the bloodthirsty became double gold medalist

This time it's his race.

Its moment.

French skiing was awaiting the coronation of Alexis Pinturault, the giant's favorite, a discipline at its peak in recent weeks.

He had Mathieu Faivre.

First in ambush in fourth place in a first round dominated by his compatriot in the morning.

Then in gold, in the wake of a mastered second act, completed by the fall of "Pintu" and a cry of joy from the Niçois.

43 years after Jean-Claude Killy, here he is crowned in a discipline where he has often sailed in the shadow of the Courchevel skier, ten months his senior.

“They have always raced against each other among young people,” says his father Jean-Marc, ex-ski instructor, now owner of a hotel in Isola 2000. And Alexis has taken a little lead at one point.

“The record of the Junior Worlds in giant sums up their rivalry.

2009: Pinturault.

2010: Faivre.

2011: again “Pintu”, which will switch more quickly than him to World Cup events, where Faivre must remain at European level.

"Competition with Alexis has served and served him"

“I was ahead of the others and behind Alexis (Pinturault) comes in and breaks everything.

I had the impression of having become a lambda skier he told Nice-Matin.

It got me inside at one point.

It hurt to see Alexis walking so hard.

"" The competition with Alexis has served him and served him at the same time, judges his junior trainer, Nicolas Burtin.

It was both a benchmark that pushed him, but also a comparison that prevented him from judging himself solely against his own races.

"

Result: at 29, Mathieu Faivre showed up at these Worlds with a record below what his immense potential augured;

a single World Cup victory in 2016 in Val-d'Isère and a single medal at the Worlds in the team event in 2017, a little thin for the one who attracted the attention of the American media when he was the boyfriend from one of the US ski stars, Mikaela Shiffrin.

In Cortina, the Niçois first won on Tuesday on the parallel, before forcing the organizers to reprogram a new Marseillaise on the giant.

“His first title did him good.

He is someone who doubts him all the time, but with very high expectations about what his career should be like, says one of his Blues coaches, Kévin Page.

We have always been convinced of its value, we have never let go.

And yet, as I tell him sometimes, I can say that in my career, I trained Mathieu Faivre.

With all his mood swings… ”

Excluded from the 2018 Olympics

Calling those who coached the Niçois is always hearing the same answer - "He has a very big character" - with a little laugh that says a lot about the setbacks encountered during the session.

“He gave me two or three bullets, says one of the managers of the French giantists, Romain Velez.

He can throw everything around, throw away the equipment, yell a big bang and sit in the snow.

It calms him down, and he leaves.

"

"I'm a bit complicated, I'm a bit hot-blooded," he blurted out at the microphone of France Televisions in the wake of his coronation.

The occasional followers of winter sports noticed this at the Pyeongchang Olympics three years ago.

Seventh of the giant, Faivre had been launched in the wake of the beautiful performance of the Blues, punctuated by the bronze of Pinturault.

"If you only knew what to do with collective group fire ... I'm here for my apple," he grumbled.

The exit had earned him to be prematurely returned to France.

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“The form was not good, but basically, it's conceivable that he thinks that in an individual discipline, estimates Romain Velez.

It hurt him to see that this story had built a bad reputation for him then, that he is an endearing guy.

”On the slopes of the Dolomites, Mathieu Faivre has carved out a new image for himself.

And a great place in the history of French skiing.