Alexis Pinturault and the famous Adelboden bell.
-
Marco Tacca / AP / SIPA
Alexis Pinturault will be the main chance for a medal at the Worlds in Cortina, Italy.
The Frenchman is also in the running to win the general classification of the World Cup, a first for a Frenchman since Luc Alphand in 1997.
Not always recognized at the height of his talent, can Pinturault take the place left vacant by Martin Fourcade?
Cortina d'Ampezzo, its luxury chalets, its Corso Italia full of fashion boutiques, and its open cafes - you read that right - to warm up around a good hot chocolate from the mountains and forget the bad weather, which pushes back every day the start of the world championships.
“A real breath of fresh air” anyway for all the lucky colleagues who can remember what a restaurant is, and incidentally for Alexis Pinturault, potential medalist in four events (Giant, combined, Super G, slalom).
The French skier does not put excessive pressure on himself before these worlds behind closed doors: “I have high goals, but it's also a fortnight where you have to ski thoroughly, like 'it goes or it breaks'.
Here, I can tell myself that I try everything, if it pays so much the better, it will be for beautiful things, if it does not pay too bad.
"
The race for the big globe as a priority
Between the lines ?
World medals, Pinturault knows.
Gold once, bronze twice.
The vertigo of winning the big globe, on the other hand, would be a first.
A solid leader in the World Cup standings for two-thirds of the season, the Courchevel skier is dreaming of his dream: to become the best skier in the world over an entire season, the first in the country since Jean-Claude Killy and Luc Alphand.
And the underlying recognition that goes with it?
Despite his solid record (33 career victories, twice the number of podiums) which places him in the top 10 of the best skiers of all time, Pinturault crosses French sport like a sure bet, without more madness around him.
"Something magnificent!", @AlexPinturault looks back on his giant weekend at the microphone of @GautdeTess He thrilled all ski fans on @Eurosport_FR @FedFranceSki #ChaletClub #Adelboden pic.twitter.com/35i4uDYY7C
- Chalet ❄️ Club (@ ChaletClub2021) January 10, 2021
"We've been through this for a long time," laments Alphand, consultant for France TV, the unencrypted broadcaster of the events in Cortina.
Alpine skiing media exposure is what it is, it takes years for people to know your name.
Today people know him, but what does he represent outside of skiing?
Yet the big globe is his Grail, it's been five years since he organized his life for that.
if he wins it, it's just huge ”.
Claude, the father, does not want anything else.
But he hardly believes in a magical change of status if the affair ends well.
“It wouldn't change much of his popularity.
Look in tennis, who cares that Federer is not world number 1.
And by bike, the same for Alaphilippe.
The big globe is a soap opera for journalists, even if by dint of drumming in his ear, he does not want to pass for the Poulidor of skiing ”.
Pinturault, the future Fourcade?
However, with the withdrawal of Fourcade, there is room for a new figure in winter sports in France, right?
And in this case, who, if not Pinturault?
Alphand also quotes Perrine Laffont, and that's not a crazy idea: Edgar Grospiron, also on moguls, was perhaps one of the most famous athletes at the end of the last century.
“I wish it for Alexis, it's important that we have great champions like him.
Now before you get to be Fourcade, you need another exposure to make alpine skiing great again.
For Martin, a lot has changed with the unscrambled broadcasts on the
Equipe
channel
”.
It was at this point, in general, that the Pinturault family released the Austrian map.
“Over there, all the races are broadcast on public television, that's something else.
We come back to the scale of sports values in a country.
A good skier in Austria is a little star, in France it is nothing at all ”.
Is it a regret in Pinturault fils, who is nevertheless known to be secret and very jealous of his privacy?
For the past three years, he has moved to Rieteralm every winter, the Tyrolean resort which has seen the birth of all the great talents of the greatest skiing nation, with Marcel Hirscher and Hermann Maier in the lead.
"He's a model in Austria"
The reason given is first of all the imperatives of recovery, according to an excellent recent report by
Equipe magazine
.
From Austria, all World Cup stages are within a two to three hour drive, and Red Bull is providing the helicopter to Bormio, the furthest station.
There, Pinturault is treated with the consideration due to his rank: Madame reserves the restaurant with her maiden name, and you often have to stop and sign autographs.
Comment from the manager of the resort, Daniel Bechtaller: “For us, who are a niche welcoming the best of the circuit, it is very important to have him here after Marcel.
Today, he is the benchmark in world skiing.
I see it with the Austrian juniors, they all ask if Alexis is there.
They want to train with him, to be inspired by him, he is a model in Austria ”.
Alexis Pinturault, January 31, 2021 in Chamonix.
- Marco Tacca / AP / SIPA
Since he will never be Austrian, and the big globe is a journalist's thing, there is only one solution left to become a rock star.
Finally go get this Olympic gold medal next year, history that we do not remain stuck on Jean-Claude Killy for a century.
A quest that is all the more vital as French skiing has specialized in Olympic one-shots, these improbable victories on D-Day. Ask Luc Alphand, who has always returned to the Games as a fanny: “When we arrived with the top gun group (Piccard, Crétier, Alphand), we all said to ourselves "if we have to win one in our life, it's that of the Olympics".
Jean-Luc Crétier, everyone knows that he is an Olympic champion, people think that I was world champion in a race, because they don't know how the classification works ”.
A gold medal at the Olympics to change everything?
No bitterness in the words: Alphand concedes without arguing that Pinturault "is already the best French skier in history on his record, even if it's hard to compare the ages".
He just landed at a time when alpine skiing was no longer as popular as it had in France.
“There are fashion phenomena and the alpine is not in fashion, that's how it is, sighs the patriarch.
But I find that in this time of Covid, the media need to talk about the kids who win, skiing or elsewhere.
Alexis' victories are good for everyone, especially the morale of the mountain troops ”.
Claude Pinturault knows what he is talking about: The hotel he has run for almost 50 years in Courchevel has not seen a client since mid-March.
"I hope we will reopen for a small party if Alexis goes to the end, we keep our fingers crossed."
And us with.
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