From the Col de la Loze, popularized by the Tour de France cyclist in 2020, the skier, if he manages to detach himself from the superb view, can reach Courchevel or Méribel, two member resorts of the immense Three Valleys area.

In Courchevel for the men's races and in Méribel for the women's races, France regained the organization of the Alpine Skiing World Championships after Chamonix in 1937 and 1962, the Olympic Games in Grenoble in 1968, which awarded world medals, and Val d' Isère in 2009.

After the five medals won in Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) in 2021, the Blues will have to surpass themselves to do better, as they go through a difficult season, like their leader Alexis Pinturault.

The child from Courchevel, far from his status as world No. 1 in 2021, is struggling between some satisfactions (third in the Beaver Creek super-G) and doubts, especially in slalom.

"Less serene"

Weighed down by injuries (withdrawals from Matthieu Bailet, Victor Muffat-Jeandet, Thibaut Favrot), the French team still presents itself with its strengths (Johan Clarey in downhill, Romane Miradoli in super-G) but also more leaders or less in doubt like Tessa Worley (no podium this winter) and the double world champion 2021 (giant and parallel) Mathieu Faivre, not yet in the top 15.

"We are a little less serene, we will have to raise the level to compete with the best. But I have confidence in my skiers. We are less in the spotlight in the World Cup but that is not why I don't believe in them at big events," said France men's team manager David Chastan.

"We have a team capable of winning in a lot of different disciplines," said Clément Noël, the only Blue to have won a race this winter.

Frenchman Clément Noël during the Alpine Skiing World Cup slalom event in Chamonix, February 4, 2023 © Jeff PACHOUD / AFP

At the top of the podiums are expected Marco Odermatt and Mikaela Shiffrin, world No. 1 without interruption since the fall of 2021.

The indomitable 25-year-old Swiss is chasing a first world title a year after Olympic gold as a giant.

A knock to his left knee in Kitzbühel slowed him down for a few days, before he responded with two super-G wins in Cortina last week.

Shiffrin chases another record

For her part, Mikaela Shiffrin brackets the narrative arc of Ingemar Stenmark's record of World Cup victories (he lacks a success to equal the Swede with 86 victories) to open another chapter: with eleven world medals, it could approach the absolute record dating from before the war of the German Christl Cranz (fifteen) and exceed the more modern mark of the Norwegian Kjetil Andre Aamodt (twelve).

The 27-year-old American hopes above all to erase the humiliation of the Beijing Olympics where she had sunk by not winning any medals in five races, for three outings, or as many as in the previous four years.

They have not been abandoned since.

Despite this two-headed domination, skiing reserves a delicious uncertainty linked in particular to weather conditions which often allow surprises, especially in these "one-day races", according to an inappropriate but popular expression on the circuit.

The organization of such a competition on two separate sites also poses significant logistical problems, transport in mind, in these steep areas.

In the middle of school holidays, a question remains concerning the attendance of the public in places primarily oriented towards the leisure of tourists.

© 2023 AFP