At 24, the Frenchman, world number two in the specialty, won the gold medal in slalom, the 13th for the French delegation since the start of the Games.
Eighteen years and the downhill victory of Antoine Dénériaz at the Turin Games that France was waiting for its new Olympic champion in alpine skiing. Until this Wednesday, the day when Clément Noël, 24, decided to do the race of his life in the men’s slalom to take gold. His first Olympic medal, four years following an infuriating fourth place in Pyeongchang.
The Frenchman, world number two in the specialty for three years, has fairly far outstripped two big clients: the Austrian Johannes Strolz, titled in combined last week, finished in silver at 61 hundredths, while the Norwegian world champion Sebastian Foss – Solevaag completes the podium, 70 hundredths behind the Frenchman.
There was clearly a blow to play this Wednesday morning on the Yanqing track: since the start of winter, the six slalom World Cup events had crowned six different winners. Clément Noël was one of them.
A little earlier, the Frenchman had completed the first round with the 6th fastest time, 38 hundredths from the Austrian Johannes Strolz, fresh Olympic champion in the combined. An extremely tight round: from the Norwegian double winner of the discipline’s globe (2016, 2020) Henrik Kristoffersen, second in time, to the Italian veteran Giuliano Razzoli, twelve skiers stood in less than 90 hundredths. Reflecting the crazy density of world slalom this season.
In ambush, the licensee of CS Val-d’Isère achieved a second high-flying round, with the best time (49.79 seconds). Enough to allow him to catch up, and to ensure a sufficient mattress. This is the third medal for alpine skiing (Johan Clarey in silver in downhill, Mathieu Faivre in bronze in giant) since the start of these Games, the 13th in total for the French team.
On the French Olympic slalom list, Noël succeeds Jean-Pierre Vidal (consecrated in 2002), Jean-Claude Killy (1968) and the Goitschel sisters Christine (in 1964) and Marielle (in 1968). He won this Olympic title in the heart of an eventful winter: he had won the first slalom of the season in Val d’Isère before not getting back on the podium for the next five races, frustrated by recurring faults. Alexis Pinturault, reduced by a shoulder, ends his Olympics in an anonymous 16th place, and will leave the Games without an individual medal for the first time in his career.
