The doors to new life.
In Schladming, Austria, "the Mecca of slalom", Julien Lizeroux, on January 26, experienced a last symbolic session escorted by thick snowflakes.
Under the glasses, the eyes were shining.
Under the suit, the heart was pounding.
At 41, the skier from La Plagne was definitely putting away his champion outfit.
A well-prepared end credits: "The body having started to decline over the years, it required such a profusion of energy to be constant that after a while I was not tired but I was not. not ready enough to perform.
It marked the end of a great adventure.
There was a bit of emotion when it came time to announce it.
Since then, I am happy to have made the decision. ”
End point of a career launched with the French team in 1997, marked by three victories (Kitzbühel and Kranjska Gora in 2009, in Adelboden in 2010), two silver medals at the world championships in Val d'Isère in 2009 ( in combined and slalom) and three participations in the Olympic Games.
When it comes time to take stock, he smiles: “During my career I won what a good footballer wins in a month… When you are in front of skiing, you can earn a living.
I had two, three good seasons.
However, I will have to work, not quickly but soon. ”
Among the good memories, the victories and the medals shine but an intimate moment remains firmly attached.
In Levi, in November 2013, when after a serious left knee injury and thirty-four months of absence, Julien Lizeroux finally returned to competition: "We are competitors and we always want to go higher and further. .
This is why we set ourselves goals that may seem impossible.
But I believe that nothing is impossible.
There is no limit."
Before the repeated performances signed by Alexis Pinturault, the skier of La Plagne was, with Jean-Baptiste Grange, the blue thread of the winters of the French team.
In the tradition, in slalom, of the French tradition from Charles Bozon to Clément Noël, from Jean-Noël Augert to Patrick Russel or Sébastien Amiez, from Jean-Claude Killy, to Jean-Pierre Vidal, without forgetting Annie Famose, Marielle Goitschel or Perrine Pelen.
Julien Lizeroux, quite a number, who has seen skiing evolve: “A lot of things have changed, especially in terms of equipment.
When I was a kid, the skis were over two meters in slalom.
At the end of the 1990s (Florence Masnada was the first to hoist them on a world podium in 1999), there was the advent of parabolic skis, it was a technological revolution. "
To combine flexibility and speed.
The sport of avoidance having become over the years a discipline of contact with slalomers who box the doors.
The stakes are no longer grazed but knocked down.
Another change according to Lizeroux: “The density, always more important.
Now there can be thirty guys hanging out in a second, a second and a half.
There is no longer the right to make mistakes. ”
"Our sport has not been able to update itself"
Julien lizeroux
He continues to follow this universe, attentive spectator of Tessa Worley, his companion, and of the other French skiers: “95% of my friends come from the world of competition, I was already extremely spectator when I was an actor but there , I became the first supporter of all French skiers.
I don't miss a thing, I'm behind them. ”
Passionate but critical, he would like to see skiing evolve: “Our sport has not been able to update itself, especially in terms of television broadcasts.
We are an old-fashioned sport in the realization.
There is a lot of work to be done on marketing and we will have to evolve, we are really behind schedule.
We need to further professionalize our athletes, our federations.
We present ourselves as a professional sport but the overall, administrative functioning is that of an amateur sport.
We have to think about it, there are large sums of money at stake. "
Concerned about the consequences of the health situation on the economy of the resorts and the future of competitions, Julien Lizeroux sums up: “You have to be intelligent, not wanting to constantly develop the resorts, the tracks become real boulevards, there are more and more people.
There are foreign countries which manage to do well, it must be done too.
The most beautiful resorts and the most beautiful mountains, they are at home, in France.
It must be used to continue to satisfy people who want to spend their holidays in the mountains. ”
Because skiing will remain his universe, his way of life.
“I am told you will now be able to enjoy skiing but since I was a kid, I have never seen competition or training as a constraint but rather as a means of expression.
I have the will to practice skiing, all its disciplines as soon as I have the time and the inclination.
For now, the priority is to breathe, to cut, to blow, to take the time to recover from all these years, I have only known high level skiing… I will, during the end of winter and spring, to settle down and enjoy the mountains and see the people that I have "neglected" during all these years. "
And give free rein to his desires, he who has, in the past, held the role of inspired consultant or illustrated himself on social networks with successful videos like the one that announced the end of his career.
Passing with humor and in a flash from the track to his sofa.
Julien Lizeroux or the blank page without the anguish ...
The End pic.twitter.com/EhQFBjWj7G
- Julien Lizeroux (@JulienLizeroux) January 25, 2021
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