Eight years after his bronze medal in Sochi, four years after his eleventh place in the half-pipe of Pyeongchang, Rolland has already signed the most beautiful victories by winning his ticket for the Olympic Games-2022 which finally begins for him with the qualifications Thursday (12:30 p.m. local, 5:30 a.m. French).
The man who has embodied half-pipe skiing in France for a decade has come a long way: he almost lost his life trying to break a world record in a gigantic "pipe" in La Plagne, but his attempt turned tragic when he completely misses its momentum.
The diagnosis is then worrying: fracture of the pelvis, cerebral hemorrhage, lungs perforated by ribs and damaged pancreas.
The doctors even doubted that he could one day resume competition, but Rolland returned to the world circuit after two years of absence in March 2021 and struck the spirits with his eighth place at the Worlds-2021 in Aspen (United States). United).
Since then, he has been sailing in the World Cup around 10th place and should have difficulty winning a medal and contributing to the French balance sheet which, four days before the end of the Beijing fortnight, stands at 13 medals, including four in gold, two units from the tricolor record for the Winter Games (15 at the 2018 Olympics).
"Everything is possible"
"Anything is possible", assures Rolland, standard bearer of the French delegation during the opening ceremony alongside skier Tessa Worley.
"That's what I told myself throughout my rehabilitation and I continue to tell myself".
The American Mikaela Shiffrin was to be the queen of alpine skiing events, but the triple winner of the general classification of the World Cup and current world No.1 has chained disappointments since her arrival in China: eliminations in giant slalom and in slalom, 9th in super-G and 18th in downhill.
He only has the combined (downhill at 10:30 a.m., slalom at 2:00 p.m.) left to save his Games and win a fourth medal after his two titles (slalom in 2014, giant slalom in 2018) and his silver medal in combined ( 2018).
But for more than a week, the setbacks of Shiffrin, like the rest of the news of these Olympics have been relegated to the background by the Valieva affair.
The Russian prodigy, big favorite for Olympic gold in the individual event before the start of the 2022 Olympics, is at the heart of a resounding doping case after being tested positive for a banned substance at the end of December and notified of this control positive in the middle of the Games.
Valieva, 2022 European champion and Olympic team champion with Russia, was provisionally suspended by the Russian anti-doping agency, before obtaining the lifting of this suspension, a decision confirmed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) twenty- just four hours before her short program which she still dominated in a heavy climate.
Not sure that her free program and her quadruple jumps, her trademark, will not silence those who, in the United States in particular, believe that she should never have been authorized to participate in these Games.
Her appearance on the ice is scheduled for 9:49 p.m. local time (2:49 p.m. French time) for a title without a podium or medals in Beijing, if she ranks in the Top 3, the IOC has already warned, but with an asterisk next to her name, until the procedure of the anti-doping authorities has been completed.
© 2022 AFP