Clément Noël in the legend.
The talented alpine skier, in full doubt in January, became the third French Olympic slalom champion in Beijing, after Jean-Claude Killy in 1968 and Jean-Pierre Vidal in 2002. With this exceptional performance, the Vosges offered a 13th medal to the French delegation, the fourth in gold after Quentin Fillon Maillet in biathlon and Papadakis-Cizeron in ice dancing.
In ice hockey, Slovakia eliminated the United States on penalties.
Here is everything you need to remember from this Olympic night.
A Christmas present
Twenty years after Jean-Pierre Vidal, the last Frenchman crowned in slalom at the Olympic Games (in Salt Lake City), Clément Noël touched his dream and won the gold medal in Beijing, after a second run of madness.
Sixth after his first run, 38 hundredths behind the Austrian Johannes Strolz, crowned six days ago in the alpine combined and who will have to settle for silver, the Vosges was in tears after his victory.
He whom the general public had discovered four years ago, in Pyeongchang, with a very good fourth place.
Clément Noël had lived through the last complicated weeks with several disappointments during World Cup events such as Madonna di Campiglio (Italy), on December 22, or Adelboden (Switzerland), where he had been eliminated after unusual errors.
He succeeds Sweden's André Myhrer, Olympic champion in the discipline in 2018.
Pinturault can't do it
Engaged like Clément Noël in this slalom event, the Frenchman Alexis Pinturault, despite two technically clean runs, has not managed to dispel the doubts that have invaded him since the start of these Olympic Games.
The winner of the 2021 big crystal globe, who was eliminated from the alpine combined after a fall and finished eleventh in the super-G, then fifth on the giant, this time had to settle for sixteenth place.
A possible participation in the team competition on Saturday could allow him to save his Games.
America sinks in hockey
The United States, who had finished in the top four of the group stage of the men's Olympic ice hockey tournament and secured their direct ticket to the quarter-finals, were surprised by Slovakia.
Yet in the lead at the end of the second period, the team which was among the favorites for the title finally conceded the equalizer and lost on penalties.
In the semi-finals, Slovakia will face the winner of the match between Russia and Denmark.
Hall was the strongest in slopestyle
After the victory of the Swiss Mathilde Gremaud, yesterday, and the disappointment in particular of Tess Ledeux, only seventh, it was the American Alexander Hall, 23, who seized gold with an exceptional run and a score of 90.01 points.
He finished ahead of his compatriot Nicholas Goepper and Sweden's Jesper Tjäder.
The Frenchman Antoine Adelisse had to withdraw following a knee injury.