In a complicated season, where he can no longer keep his big Crystal Globe in alpine skiing, Alexis Pinturault still has several cartridges to make this exercise memorable. And it will start with the alpine combined, Thursday February 10 (descent at 3:30 a.m. and slalom at 7:15 a.m. French time), i.e. its “better luck“to get on the Olympic box again according to our consultant Luc Alphand. Franceinfo: sport explains to you in three points why the Frenchman with 34 World Cup victories should not miss this event.
Because he only lacks Olympic gold in “his” specialty
“Bronze or silver, he already has some. What he wants is to win. And his chance of winning here in Yanqing is much higher in the alpine combined than it is elsewhere.“Luc Alphand paints the picture of entry. And if the winner of the World Cup in 1997 seems so sure of himself, it is because the skier from Courchevel (Savoie) is a sacred monster in alpine combined. For almost a decade – even if this discipline is more or less shunned by the World Cup circuit (the last event took place in February 2020, in Bansko (Bulgaria), and was won by the Frenchman) – Alexis Pinturault (30 years old) in made his specialty.
Just look at the charts of the native of Moutiers (Savoy) in this test to verify it: four Crystal Globes (2016, 2017, 2019 and 2020), 10 World Cup victories (out of 34 in total), a world champion title in Are (Sweden) in 2019, and an Olympic medal ( silver in 2018). Finally, and he himself sees it as a small anomaly in his rich career, only Olympic gold has resisted him so far. It is therefore time to remedy this, but to achieve this, it will be a question of keeping one’s rank.
However, nothing is a foregone conclusion, especially in the face of increasingly biting competition. “He is the favorite but there will be a real game. And this handset title is far from wonwarns Luc Alphand. Some slalomers, very good or even intrinsically a little better than Alexis this year, have done good training. Before, he had a margin but this has been reduced a little bit.“
Because there won’t be Marco Odermatt in front of him
Let’s say it, that Marco Odermatt (24) is not versatile enough to engage in combined represents, this season in particular, a real “phew” of relief. Because the Swiss is quite simply “stratospheric” this season, as our consultant wishes to note. Largely in the lead of the World Cup, he already has twice as many victories as last season with four giants won and two super-G successes. “This year, Alexis comes across a bone called Marco Odermatt”rightly recalls Luc Alphand.
If Pinturault had managed to win his duel in extremis during the previous exercise, there was no debate on the current one, the Swiss prodigy having passed a milestone, in particular in giant. “Alexis will be able to win, of course, but Odermatt is in another sphere for now. This is why the handset is very important“, analyzes inevitably but precisely the cabin companion of Alexandre Pasteur. Freed from the pressure put by his Swiss executioner, Alexis Pinturault will no longer have the excuse of an infallible competition in front of him.
Because he took more cues than everyone on the Yanqing trail
This is an important fact to underline. The Frenchman is the only one of the favorites in the alpine combined to have already practiced the artificial snow which winds the rocky mountains of Yanqing in an official race, having taken 11th place in the super-G on Tuesday. His biggest rival in the specialty, Marco Schwarz (reigning world champion), Loïc Meillard, Justin Murisier or even Johannes Strolz, have not yet put on a bib for these Games. They just contented themselves with the downhill training before the official start of the competitions. And even again this morning on the occasion of the final dress rehearsal. Moreover, Schwarz pushed the rods all the way to the end, seeming to “Good shape“, according to the confessions of Alexis Pinturault.
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He was reassured”with rather good feelings“, taking “more great landmarks” on this course, as he was able to tell us a few minutes after his run in a mixed zone even quieter than usual, the women’s slalom being disputed at the same time. In the end, he will therefore have descended four times ( three downhill workouts and the super-G) the Olympics speed track, at least once more than all of its top rivals.
“Of course it’s a real plus for himconfirms Luc Alphand. Already because it’s a track that nobody knows and has practiced. It was the first super-G contested on this track, and to have done it, compared to all the other good slalomers, it is an advantage, of course. It’s up to Pinturault now to take advantage of it, to hope to enter a little more into the legend of French skiing.