The race promised to be crazy, it was. Like a World Cup season more indecisive than ever – six winners in six races – the slalom of the Beijing Games gave rise, Wednesday, February 16, on the icy snow of Yanqing, to a suspenseful final . There were about fifteen of them in the starting gate of the Ice River, frozen by -22°C, to compete for the Olympic title, and it was Clément Noël who, at the start of the afternoon, under a bright sun, took the light.
At 24, the skier from Val-d’Isère is crowned Olympic champion ahead of the Austrian Johannes Strolz – already winner of the alpine combined on February 10 – and the Norwegian Sebastian Foss-Solevaag, in bronze. The title of consecration for Christmas, the first tricolor gold medalist in alpine skiing since Antoine Dénériaz (downhill) at the 2006 Turin Games. The French camp, frustrated until then by the disappointments in Yanqing of its leader, Alexis Pinturault, could finally let his joy burst out in the finish area.
“It’s a pretty magical feeling, it’s the Olympics. A race every four years, and it’s hard in a discipline like ours to be present on D-Day. It’s a point of pride, in the life of an athlete, there’s not much stronger than an Olympic gold medal”, said the new king of slalom delighted.
“Technically Brilliant”
Sixth at the end of the first route, 38 hundredths behind the Austrian Strolz – a policeman in a past life – Clément Noël, bib number 4, said to himself “a little disappointed with his sleeve”. “I got off to a pretty good start, with good intentions and good fluidity. After, on the bottom [de la piste]I hardened a little, and I was much too cautious », he analyzed, hot. Before adding: “It’s tight, anything is possible. »
The possibility was expressed, for the 1.91 meter skier, from the Vosges, by a fairly slow action at the start of the second act, before a demonstration in the final wall, the key to his recital. No other skier was faster than him in the second run. Often described as a gifted skier, Clément Noël was present on the day of the main exam.
From the start of his career, the greatest already praised him. “He is technically brilliant, he finds more direct lines than anyone. It’s the future of skiing.” had greeted the Austrian Marcel Hirscher, the king of the white circus in the 2010s, after the Christmas victory in Kitzbühel (Austria), in January 2019. Ingemar Stenmark, the Swedish legend – 86 victories in the World Cup -, was there , at the time, he too went out of his praise. “He’s a fantastic skier. I think he will be one of the best in the future. He has a very good technique, he has a good feeling, a good touch of snow. »
In France, the reference of the slalom, until then, it was Jean-Baptiste Grange. And the double world champion (2011 and 2015) of the specialty is definitive on the qualities of his successor. “It’s the best in slalom; when he puts everything in order, it’s victory or podium”, declares the retiree, since last winter, of the specialty.
On the podium, the Frenchman’s eyes were reddened as much by the intense sun as by the awareness of his achievement. Because, until then, everything had not slipped into the best of worlds for him. After a thundering season opener (victory in the Val-d’Isère slalom, December 12, 2021), he gave off an impression of ease.
Until his silly mistake at Madonna di Campiglio (Italy), shortly before Christmas, where he straddled two doors from the finish, when he had won the race. His ski, usually incisive, then becomes unrecognizable, the Frenchman slaloms with the handbrake, begins to doubt, has a series of disappointments and begins to drag his spleen from race to race.
Contract completed for the Blues
“My first runs in January were good, that means the skiing is still there, but each time, behind, there were disappointments in the second run. Most of the time, it was played in the head “, he admitted, lucid, in front of the journalists when he arrived in China. Olympic slalom champion in Salt Lake City in 2002, Jean-Pierre Vidal, for his part, pointed to a slight lack of maturity: “He’s so gifted that he kinda screwed up all the stages. His mind is not yet as strong as his technique. »
Clément Noël promised, less than a week ago, to approach the Yanqing Olympic slalom with a different state of mind from that shown during the “classics” in January. He said he wanted to ski without apprehension of failure, persuaded himself to go “released”, “liberated”. “He will have to take a lot of risks”put it differently Jean-Pierre Vidal, now a consultant at Eurosport.
At the Pyeongchang Games (South Korea), Noël had failed at the foot of the podium for four hundredths. Four years later, a few hundred kilometers away, on Chinese soil, the lesson has been learned.
The French team intended, before the start of the Olympics, to leave Beijing with three medals. After the silver of forty-something Johan Clarey, in downhill, on February 6, and the bronze for the courage of Mathieu Faivre, a week later, in giant slalom, it’s done. There are still two opportunities for the Blues to do better than in South Korea: the chances will be slim in the women’s alpine combined, Thursday February 17, real two days later in the mixed team parallel. For Clément Noël, the presentation is over. One race, one victory. With mention and congratulations from the circuit.
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