World Cup: Pinturault in the footsteps of Killy and Alphand

The last steps.

Launched in October on the Austrian Sölden glacier, the World Cup soap opera will deliver its verdict this week in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.

The suspense is total.

Alexis Pinturault wears the leader's jersey, the big globe of the general classification celebrating the skier of the season at hand, but his position is weakened by the Swiss Marco Odermatt, a real pinball ball who returned in extremis to 31 points, with two successes chained in March in Saalbach, then in Kranjska Gora.

And determined to let the shadow of his threat hang over.

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The globe, a crystal trap for the French.

This season, the leader of blue-white-red skiing has once again let his fantastic versatility speak for itself and has experienced it all.

He won four races, three giant slaloms (in Adelboden, and a resounding double in Alta Badia) and a parallel slalom in Lech (parallel giant success which allows him to count victories in six different disciplines: giant slalom, combined, slalom , city event, parallel giant and Super-G; only the descent is missing from this fantastic picture).

He has long occupied the place of leader, like the Norwegian Alexander Aamodt Kilde, winner of the World Cup last year, struck down in mid-January by a rupture of the cruciate ligament of the right knee in training.

The top match then boiled down to a distant duel between Pinturault (4 wins, plus 3 podiums), who had a lead of up to 317 points at the end of January, and Odermatt (3 wins, plus 6 podiums).

The big crystal globe, Alexis Pinturault's quest.

The Courchevel skier (2nd in 2019 and 2020; 3rd in 2014, 2015 and 2016) shone in the shadow of the Austrian Marcel Hirscher, winner of the World Cup from 2012 to 2019. His consistency and versatility designated him as one of the natural heirs.

But last year, the Covid-19 pandemic turned the end of the World Cup upside down.

The last two races, the giant and the slalom of Kranjska Gora, had been canceled and the French skier, frustrated, remained stuck at 57 points from the dream after an amputated epilogue.

Feet of fire

Coming out of the Cortina d'Ampezzo world championships between satisfaction and disappointment in February (silver medalist in the combined and bronze in the Super-G, eliminated from the giant after flying over the first round, he had witnessed Mathieu's surprise victory Faivre), Alexis Pinturault has a golden opportunity to make history.

France has been waiting for a big crystal globe since Luc Alphand in 1997. Only Jean-Claude Killy (1967 and 1968) and Michèle Jacot (1970) have, in blue history, also won the prestigious title.

In Lenzerheide, where the weather could disrupt the speed events and penalize Marco Odermatt, Alexis Pinturault, a mature skier (30 years old on March 20) will settle down with determination in the starting gate to try to reverse the dynamics and open the gates of glory ...

His brother hand in hand with Platini

At the same time, Jean-Baptiste Grange (36) will experience the lowering of the curtain of a flamboyant career.

He had timidly advanced to the front of the stage with a bronze medal at the world championships in Are in 2007. After this click, the White Circus became attached to this talent which, in January 2008, had signed a double (super-combined then slalom) in Wengen.

The last blue double stroke engraved in Wengen then dated from 1967. Signed by Jean-Claude Killy… Enough to imagine a glorious sequel for this child of the ball.

His parents defended the colors of the France team.

His brother, François-Cyril, gave his hand to Michel Platini when lighting the Olympic cauldron after the unforgettable parade of Philippe Decouflé during the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Albertville, in 1992. Feet of fire and crystalline technique, instinctive skiing, he will have (when his body left him in peace) illuminated long blue winters with two world slalom championship titles in 2011 at Garmisch-Partenkirchen and 2015 at Beaver Creek, as well as 9 victories in the Coupe du world.

He saw Alexis Pinturault and Clément Noël grow and flourish.

The tricolor slalom will still be talked about ...

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