A first gold medal for France at the Alpine Skiing World Championships.
In Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy), Mathieu Faivre became, Tuesday February 16, world champion in individual parallel.
This is the first time that the young discipline was part of the world championship.
🤩 WORLD CHAMPION !!!
Frenchman Mathieu Faivre won the first world title in parallel history 🇫🇷 Enjoy
the Alpine Skiing Worlds on Eurosport and https://t.co/7qbNJch1A0#ChaletClub # Cortina2021 pic.twitter.com/LxgQkso5kl
- Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 16, 2021
"A medal is a medal. But we must not lie to each other, a medal in a top discipline is not the same flavor. I don't train all year round to draw parallels (...) The parallel can be nice, you have to do it 100% but obviously for me, the main race is the giant ", explained Mathieu Faivre before the event.
Champion almost by chance then?
The fact remains that Mathieu Faivre - who so far had only one World Cup victory - dominated Croatian Filip Zubcic in the final by 48 hundredths of a second after two rounds to give France their first title of the Worlds.
The Swiss Loïc Meillard, big favorite, benefited from the fall of Alexander Schmid during the second round of the small final to clinch 3rd place, his 2nd bronze medal after the combined on Monday.
In women, the French Tessa Worley finished 3rd in front of the American Paula Moltzan (+1 sec 18), obtaining the 4th tricolor medal after the title of Faivre and the two medals of Alexis Pinturault (bronze and silver).
24-year-old Marta Bassino of Italy and 23-year-old Katharina Liensberger of Austria shared the title after finishing a tie in the final.
🇫🇷 @TessaWorley dominating on the small final to afford the Bronze medal!
🥉💪pic.twitter.com / ZnQCOIRsi2
- FFS - French Ski Federation (@FedFranceSki) February 16, 2021
A new and controversial discipline
The International Ski Federation (FIS) has been trying for several years to promote parallel events, because of their spectacular side and therefore necessarily telegenic.
However, it struggles to find the ideal format to satisfy viewers and athletes, for whom the event takes a back seat to ambitions.
Another criticism addressed to the federation, the supposed lack of fairness of the event, which pushes the FIS to grope.
For these first world championships, the individual parallel has become a "giant" type race, and no longer a slalom.
And, after qualifying, the skiers face each other in the final table in round-trip matches where they will therefore use both tracks (the blue and the red) for better equity (one of the two is often slightly faster. ).
The slower skier during the first run sets off in the second round with the delay accumulated (at most 50 hundredths of a second).
The first to cross the line qualifies for the rest.
Not enough to convince everyone.
In men, Alexis Pinturault and Henrik Kristoffersen, however finalists in Austria in the only other parallel event organized this winter season, have decided not to line up.
Just like the American Mikaela Shiffrin or the Swiss Michelle Gisin who have also decided to ignore the side of women.
With AFP
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