Victor Muffat-Jeandet took 3rd place from the giant Adelboden on January 11, 2020, his first podium in two years. - Gabriele Facciotti / AP / SIPA

Victor Muffat-Jeandet finished 3rd in the Alpine Ski World Cup giant Adelboden (Switzerland) on Saturday, his first podium in the discipline in almost two years, while Alexis Pinturault only finished 10th. The Slovenian Zan Kranjec won ahead of the Croatian Filip Zubcic (at 29 hundredths) while the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen shared the 3rd place with Victor Muffat-Jeandet (at 64 hundredths).

The rise of VMJ

Victor Muffat-Jeandet, Olympic medalist in 2018, had only finished 15th in the first heat (74 hundredths behind the Italian Luca de Aliprandini), but he was able to take advantage of the extremely tight gaps between all skiers: the 19 first ones stood in under a second. Thanks to the 3rd fastest time of the second track, the Frenchman managed to keep his place on the podium until the end.

Victor Muffat-Jeandet thus signed his 9th career World Cup podium, the previous one dating from January 2018 (2nd in Wengen's combined). As a giant, he hadn't finished in the top three since his 3rd place in the giant of the World Cup finals in March 2018 in Are (Sweden).

Disappointing Pinturault

The strongest skier on Saturday, the Slovenian Zan Kranjec won him the second victory of his career after the giant of Saalbach (Austria) in December 2018 and confirms that he is one of the very best in the world in his favorite discipline. It is already the third podium of winter (3rd in Sölden in Austria in October and 3rd in Alta Badia in Italy in December) for the 27-year-old skier, who takes the opportunity to take the lead in the classification of the specialty.

He is ahead of the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen who signed his 5th podium of the season, tied with Muffat-Jeandet but behind the amazing Croatian Filip Zubcic, 2nd for the first podium of his career at 26 years old. Kristoffersen above all made a good deal by taking the lead in the general classification of the World Cup, taking advantage of the disappointing 10th place of Alexis Pinturault (at 1''21).

Alexis Pinturault and the difficult obligation to succeed the ogre Hirscher via @ 20minutesSport https://t.co/0ZxiTcgnpP

- 20 Minutes Sport (@ 20minutesSport) December 13, 2019

Sick this week, the Frenchman had decided not to train before the giant Adelboden to rest as much as possible in the middle of a January "marathon" (he must compete in 9 races). Pinturault even went back to 3rd overall behind another Norwegian, Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, 5th on Saturday. Kilde, specialist in speed events (downhill and super-G) remains on two excellent races in giant after his 4th place in Alta Badia (Italy) in December.

Very comfortable also in combined (2nd at Bormio in Italy behind Pinturault in December), Kilde asserts herself as a serious contender for the big Crystal Globe at the end of the season.

  • Sport
  • Alpine skiing
  • Alexis Pinturault