The career of Kevin Rolland could be adapted to the cinema, in a blockbuster in Hollywood, he who built a large part of his fame across the Atlantic, especially in Colorado where he came to teach the lesson on their land to the Americans from the end of the 2000s.

At 29, the life of the native of Bourg-Saint-Maurice changed on April 30, 2019: two months after his silver medal at the Worlds in Park City (Utah), the fourth of his career, he tries the world record high in a quarterpipe, a kind of springboard in the shape of a quarter tube, in its La Plagne resort.

Kevin Rolland, during the halfpipe final, during the World Cup stage, March 20, 2011 in La Plagne JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT AFP / Archives

To erase American Simon Dumont, one of the legends of the halfpipe, from the shelves, he must rise almost 11 meters.

In his attempt, he loses his balance, falls more than ten meters and lands on top of the wall, the "coping".

Victim of a head trauma, he fractures his pelvis, and is affected in the lungs, ribs, liver, spleen, and kidneys.

Hospitalized in Grenoble in serious condition, he was placed in a coma for several days and had pelvis surgery.

From his hospital room, he learned of the birth of his first son Rio ten days later (with his partner Roma Perrier, they had a second son, Dali, in April 2021).

The injury being part of the job of a halfpipe skier, he very quickly plans to get back on skis, which he does in October 2019.

Back in Aspen

As a nod to history, it is on the Buttermilk site in Aspen (Colorado), where he built his X-Games legend, that "Mitch", his nickname in reference to Mitch Buchannon in Alert in Malibu, made this return to competition, for the Worlds-2021 (8th place).

Frenchman Kevin Rolland, during the Superpipe final at the X-Games, September 28, 2012 in Aspen (Colorado) DOUG PENSINGER GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/Archives

In 2008 and at only 18, he was selected to participate in the "Extreme Sports Champions League", even though his discipline was not yet Olympic.

"It was amazing. I remember crying. It was my dream, the X-Games," he recalls.

Tears of joy turn into tears of pain: third in qualifying, he is injured in the final (ruptured cruciate ligaments in his right knee).

Two years later, and after an 8th place in 2009, it was consecration: he won the first of his three X-Games titles with 2011 and 2016 (he also won the X-Games Europe in 2010 and 2011).

Its history with Olympism only began to be written in 2014 when the discipline entered the Games.

Present in Sochi for the gold, he returned from Russia with the bronze, behind the American David Wise and the Canadian Mike Riddle.

Frenchman Kevin Rolland, after his The joy of Frenchman Kevin Rolland, after his bronze medal in the halfpipe at the Olympic Games in Sochi (Russia), February 19, 2014 LOIC VENANCE AFP/Archives

Weakened by a major shoulder sprain before the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, he left South Korea with an eighth place.

Kevin Rolland, a big freediving fan apart from his passion for skiing, will travel to China for his third and final Olympic adventure, which will therefore begin on February 4 at Beijing's Bird's Nest, to take the French delegation alongside by Tessa Worley.

© 2022 AFP