Reigning world champion, the French won the bronze medal this Sunday in a giant dominated by the essential Swiss Marco Odermatt.
Special Envoy to China
An alarm clock at the right time. While since the start of the season, Mathieu Faivre had hardly shone, winning as a better result in the World Cup than a 5th place unworthy of his status as world champion in the discipline, the French skier resumed colors right at the right time. Namely this Sunday, during an Olympic giant made homeric by oh so delicate weather conditions. In particular during a first race which he finished with the 3rd best time and the impression of having seen nothing at all, so much the visibility was reduced to a minimum by an imposing curtain of snow pouring down from the Chinese sky. The second act, moreover, had to be postponed by an hour and a quarter to make it possible to make the Yanqing track passable and fair.
And immediatelyOlympic Games 2022: Mathieu Faivre wins bronze on the Giant, 8th medal for France
In the end, it won by crowning the best of all, the Swiss Marco Odermatt, who saved his Games thanks to this gold medal after his double disappointment in speed (7th in the downhill and off the road in Super G). Winner of four giants out of five this season before flying to Beijing, Odermatt was able to resist the pressure, and a big mistake in the first round, to get ahead of Slovenian Zan Kranjec by 19 hundredths, author of a second round of ‘extraterrestrial being the only one to go below 1’06” (1’05”83). It was almost enough to topple the Swiss king of discipline. And so to complete the podium, Mathieu Faivre achieved his best performance with a marvelous sense of timing, thus giving France its 8th medal of the Games, the first in bronze.
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I felt like I was struggling all the way through the second run.
Mathieu Faivre
«It’s been a long day, even the whole week“, smiles the French at the microphone of France Television. “I had a lump in my stomach but that was part of the game. Today, it pays off and it’s just great. I focused on me. I felt like I was struggling all the way through the second run. The conditions were just terrible. With experience, I knew how to manage that. I pushed to the maximum and today it’s bronze so I’m happy.“A magnificent resurrection, and a revenge also on Pyeongchang, which he had finished in 7th place during the giant and an unfortunate declaration which had earned him a premature return to France, excluded from the hexagonal collective. An episode now forgotten for the just thirty-year-old, who is just ahead of two of his compatriots, Alexis Pinturault and Thibaut Favrot, in perfect equality for 5th place.
Alexis Pinturault still too fair
A nice surprise for the second, not expected at such a party, and a disappointment for the first, who continues to come up empty individually at these Games, he who dreamed of completing his formidable record with the only major title missing: Olympic gold. “We will say that it was better than in the first round (11th time) but it’s not perfect yet“, he commented, less affected than after his failure during the combined. “I am embarrassed in my body language (due to his painful shoulder after a fall during the combined) and that’s what I need to bring more speed. I grit my teeth in these conditions. Afterwards, it is certain that at the Games, we want to be in the fight for the medal. These Games will certainly not be the best of my career. It’s sports. It doesn’t always smile.However, he still has the slalom on Wednesday to hope for a podium.
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