At 41, Frenchman Johan Clarey won the silver medal in the downhill after an exceptional race.
Johan Clarey achieved a feat at the Beijing Olympics by winning the silver medal in the Olympic downhill at the age of 41 on Monday, the day when we learned that the Chinese Peng Shuai had met the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Certainly Clarey did not manage to do as well as his elders Antoine Dénériaz (JO-2006) and Jean-Luc Crétier (JO-1998), crowned a little to everyone’s surprise but all the same… He becomes the most old Olympic medalist in the history of alpine skiing.
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After a 24-hour delay, the Frenchman mastered the difficult “Rock”, this Olympic track that all the kings of speed discovered, where the wind and 100% artificial snow had to be important factors to tame. In 1 min 42 sec 79/100th, Clarey, who had recently shown his form by being the oldest skier on a World Cup podium at the end of January (2nd in Kitzbühel), simply gave in to the Swiss Beat Feuz, who will celebrate his 35 years old on February 11, all but an unknown. Austrian Matthias Mayer completes the podium while Norwegian favorites Aleksander Aamodt Kilde (5th) and Swiss Marco Odermatt (7th) are behind. France thus won its second medal – still silver – after that of the mixed biathlon relay on Saturday.
Waiting for Tessa Worley
After the downhillers, who should have fought for the title on Sunday without a cancellation due to wind, alpine skiing is experiencing another highlight, with the women’s giant slalom. The first run, scheduled just before the downhill, has already offered a first big surprise with the elimination of one of the favourites, Mikaela Shiffrin. The American, triple medalist and double Olympic champion (slalom in 2014 and giant slalom in 2018), came out of the first gates.
She will have the opportunity to make up for her blunder since she plans to line up in the five individual disciplines (downhill, super-G, giant, slalom, combined). The elimination of this contender for the podium is the game of her opponents and in particular Tessa Worley. The French standard-bearer is in contact with the best at the end of the first run – 7th at 1 sec 37 from the best Swede Sara Hector – and can believe in the podium after which she has been skiing for twelve years. The double giant world champion (2013 and 2017) has already had two missed opportunities in Vancouver in 2010 (16th) and Pyeongchang in 2018 (7th).
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