Ski: Cyprien Sarrazin, the new French sensation already in history
With an exceptional double in downhill on the legendary Kitzbühel slope, this Saturday January 20, French skier Cyprien Sarrazin established himself as one of the great revelations of winter in speed, finally succeeding in taming his “
hothead
” side.
who played tricks on him for a long time.
Frenchman Cyprien Sarrazin reacts after the first round of the men's downhill event of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup in Kitzbuehel, Austria, January 20, 2024. AFP - GEORG HOCHMUTH
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“
When I started to feel good in my life, on skis, there was no longer even a need to work
,” explained the skier from Hautes-Alpes on Wednesday, three days before achieving the unthinkable on the slope Austrian.
Words which echoed those made after his first victory of the season in Bormio (Italy) at the end of December: “
I am finally myself at 29, I have found myself as a man and it shows on the skis
”.
Born in 1994 in Gap, Cyprien Sarrazin has been searching for a long time since his debut on the world circuit in 2016, before finding his way last season in speed events.
It was on the slopes of Dévoluy, alongside his instructor father, that “Cyp” learned to ski.
Very quickly, his adolescence was marked by a few victories, but above all by repeated injuries in which his tibia was always tilted.
When he arrived in the World Cup at the age of 22, he won, to everyone's surprise, the parallel giant of Alta Badia (Italy), only his seventh race on the world circuit.
« 𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗲": Cyprien Sarrazin 🇫🇷 reacts to the Eurosport microphone after his fantastic double in Kitzbühel #ChaletClub pic.twitter.com/0wITJ8ONdW
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) January 20, 2024
Long convalescences
But the following seasons were marked by serious injuries.
In January 2018, he fell during training in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), which caused him severe head trauma.
Convalescence is painful.
“
I needed zero screens, I didn't have to read, I had to go 10 days without a phone, without anything at all
,” he explained to AFP in October 2018.
Eleven months later, he put on a few bibs again, but a fracture in his right knee once again sidelined him from the slopes for the rest of the winter.
Back at the end of 2019, he won a magnificent second place on the giant of Alta Badia but will never manage to confirm this success.
So, at the start of the 2022-2023 season, the skier from Dévoluy makes the decision that will change his career: the shift towards speed events.
“Since
I was very little, I have had this fiber, this instinct for speed
,” he told AFP in January 2023. “
I love speed, a taste for risk
,” Sarrazin added. , also a big fan of mountain biking.
Appreciated by his teammates and his opponents alike, “Crazy Cyp” quickly made an impression with his extreme risk-taking which earned him some spectacular off-track runs and a reputation as a hothead.
The results are there: he took a good 6th place in the Val Gardena descent in December 2022 before achieving the best time in one of the training sessions in... Kitzbühel in January 2023. But a back injury forced him to do a cross on the Worlds in Courchevel.
“Imposter syndrome”
To succeed in channeling himself on the slope, Sarrazin, rather calm and collected when he does not have skis on his feet, declared on Wednesday that he had started seeing a psychologist last spring, "
to work on myself, as a 'man, not on skis at all
, [...]
it must have been three months since the coaches said anything technical to me.'
He is also accompanied by a mental trainer and an “energy coach
”.
“𝗝𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗮𝗶𝘀 𝗾𝘂𝗲 𝗰’𝗲́𝘁𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲!”
: Sarrazin's madness deciphered by @yoclarey #ChaletClub pic.twitter.com/fNW4qetbX4
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) January 20, 2024
A mental trigger that ended up paying off.
After two frustrating fourth places in Val Gardena in mid-December, two weeks later in Bormio he achieved the round of his life to score his first success in downhill and free a French clan which had not won for eight years in the discipline.
“
Before Bormio, I told myself for three days that I had the right to win, I had never allowed myself to win, I had a kind of imposter syndrome
”, he summarized before taping up the ski planet on the famous Streif slope.
After achieving his third World Cup success during the Super-G in Wengen (Switzerland) last weekend, Sarrazin did better than do it again.
The new hero of French skiing is launched into an unexpected quest for the crystal globe downhill alongside Swiss genius Marco Odermatt.
“
Nothing has changed except my status
,” he judged on Wednesday.
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