Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) (AFP)

With his good-natured air and his chubby physique, the Swiss Beat Feuz attacks the descent of the Worlds in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) on Sunday as the best descender in the world, thanks to the magic he knows how to make spring from his feet.

Slicing up the track with subtlety is the pastime every weekend for the 34-year-old Swiss, 2017 world champion and Olympic downhill bronze medalist.

And yet, among the golgoths who populate the finish areas of speed races, his slight overweight and modest size (1.73 m) clash.

In Cortina, where the Worlds take place, we like to start a meal with prosciutto as an antipasto, these slices of ham so finely cut that they melt in the mouth, time to jump on a second piece.

What to put Feuz in the best conditions.

"Fire if you meet him in the street, you don't tell yourself that he cuts World Cup descents every weekend, underlines the Frenchman Maxence Muzaton. He is one of the descenders who have a thing, that we does not know how to explain, a relaxation ... "

- The "Kugelblitz" -

This relaxation, the triple holder of the small globe of the specialty, from the canton of Bern, patiently built it.

"It's something that I had to develop, the fault of my injuries. In fact, I had no choice: if I wanted to continue my career, then I had to ski with sensation, and not with force", He explains to the daily Le Matin in 2018, when he suffered from numerous knee injuries.

"I believe my body made this decision on its own. As the workouts progress, the body will naturally move towards what causes it the least pain. I also have a very low, close center of gravity. snow, which helps me to feel it well, to become one with it. Besides, it is not for nothing that I am called the + Kugelblitz + (ball of lightning). "

Asked about his most sensitive foot, he replies "the left".

"Since I tore the Achilles tendon on this foot, he made up for his lack of strength with more sensations. He's the metronome: he decides how much pressure I can put on. While the right , which is more muscular and at the end of my strong leg, acts as a guardrail. He is there to recover what I would have misjudged. "

- "Chocolate bars" -

Before becoming the king of downhill, Feuz was first an extremely gifted youngster, even in technical disciplines: in 2005 at 18, he won bronze in the slalom at the World Juniors for his first participation, before making a cardboard in 2007 (downhill and super-G titles, bronze in slalom).

Despite his jovial demeanor, the chin-dimpled brunette is not easy to approach.

He responds almost exclusively to interviews in Bärndütsch (the Swiss-German dialect of his home) and especially never in English, a rarity today on the white circus.

In January 2021, he finally won - twice - the most prestigious downhill in Kitzbühel (Austria) after four second places, for his 14th and 15th World Cup victories (51 podiums).

As usual, he made the difference by carving curves which he knows the secret at the end of the course when the legs burn after almost two minutes of effort.

"His ski consumes less energy than average. If we do a VO2 max test tomorrow, I'm not sure that he breaks all the scores, but his ski + costs + less", judge Maxence Muzaton.

“OK, I don't have chocolate bars, but I can assure you that I am doing the same basic training as the other athletes,” replied Feuz.

In Cortina, he deviated from his habits by being particularly applied to training on Saturday (third fastest time), before surely bringing out his magic for the race.

© 2021 AFP