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Clement Noel
A second monumental round to afford the supreme title. Clement Noel, never stood on a podium during a major individual championship (world championship and Olympic Games), won the gold medal in slalom this Wednesday morning. Sixth fastest in the first race, 38 hundredths behind the leader, the Vosgien knew he was in the game. But from there to crush the competition in this way… Best time of the second run, the skier with nine victories in the World Cup on the specialty left no chance to his opponents and finished ahead of the Austrian Johannes Strolz and Norwegian Sebastian Foss-Solevaag.
“I had four tenths to make up for, so I had to pull out a big run to get on the podium. That’s it, it’s done…”, he confided to the microphone of France Télévisions after his feat. “I don’t know if I’m still realizing (…) I don’t know if I deserve more than another, but I worked hard for it… Thank you to all those who got up early”, concluded the French, in tears and with great difficulty in expressing themselves, on France Télévisions.
For Alexis Pinturault, there was no miracle. Always bothered by a bruised shoulder, the skier from Courchevel, 5th in the giant on Sunday, was far from the mark in this slalom. 15th in the first heat, he did not raise the bar on the second and finished in an anecdotal 16th place. The Frenchman, double medalist in PyeongChang four years ago (bronze on the giant, silver on the combined) will leave Beijing empty-handed on the individual events. If his physical condition allows it, he will still have the team event (Saturday from 4 am) to save his Games.
Ice Hockey Sensation
The hockey tournament is entering a new phase, that of knockout matches. Last night, the United States, very serious contenders for the title and victorious in their three group matches, were surprised by Slovakia in the quarter-finals. Jostled, the Americans conceded the first goal and quickly ran after the score.
If they thought they had recovered their heads by leading 2-1, they saw the Slovaks equalize at the very end of regulation time before losing on penalties. From the start of the final phase, this is already a favorite on the mat. Following the quarters this Wednesday with Russia-Denmark, Finland-Switzerland and Sweden-Canada.
The United States have a double in ski slopestyle
Everything went better for the USA in freestyle skiing, since the country of Uncle Sam reigned in slopestyle. The American Alexander Hall won the first Olympic medal of his career ahead of his compatriot Nicholas Goepper, who for his part reached the podium for the third time at the Olympics. Hall, 23, born in Alaska, stunned the entry competition with a first run of 90.01 points that held until the end in the freezing cold of Zhangjiakou. Swedish Jesper Tjader completes the podium.
As a reminder, the Frenchman Antoine Adelisse could not defend his chances in this event. Victim of a sprained right knee with damage to the anterior cruciate ligament after a fall in training, he had to forfeit slopestyle and end his season. At the start of the fortnight, reduced due to a back injury, he had narrowly failed to reach the big air final.