Europe 1 with AFP
modified to
2:34 p.m., February 16, 2022
Frenchman Clément Noël won the gold medal in alpine skiing slalom on Wednesday, the 13th medal for France in the Beijing Winter Olympics. The 24-year-old is the first French Olympic champion in alpine skiing since Antoine Dénériaz, winner of the downhill in 2006.
Clément Noël became the 24-year-old Olympic slalom champion on Wednesday in Yanqing, bringing a fourth title and a thirteenth medal to France at the Beijing Olympics. Noël is the first French Olympic champion in alpine skiing since Antoine Dénériaz, winner of the downhill in 2006. He was 61/100 ahead of the Austrian Johannes Strolz, titled in combined last week, and 70/100 the world champion Norwegian Sebastian Foss-Solevaag.
The best time of the second route
Sixth in the first run, Noël clocked the best time on the second course under a bright sun to win his first international medal after winning nine slaloms in the World Cup. He succeeds for France in the Olympic slalom prize list to Jean-Pierre Vidal (consecrated in 2002), Jean-Claude Killy (1968) and the sisters Christine (1964) and Marielle Goitschel (1968).
Noël had shown himself at a very high level with a surprise fourth place at the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018. Since then, he has been world number two in the specialty three times (from 2019 to 2021). He won the 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, finished in an anonymous 16th place, and will leave the Games without an individual medal for the first time in his career.