After a historic feat on the legendary Kitzbühel slope, French skier Cyprien Sarrazin is, without a doubt, the revelation of this new alpine ski season. Born in 1994, the native of Gap searched for himself for a long time, even when he took on the descents of Dévoluy alongside his father, at the age of six.
Very quickly, despite his DUT in Technique and Marketing, the young boy understood that he had fallen in love with speed and dizzying descents. His adolescence was marked by a few victories, but above all by repeated injuries. When he arrived in the World Cup at the age of 22, he won, to everyone’s surprise, the parallel giant of Alta Badia (Italy), only his seventh race on the world circuit.
Numerous injuries
But bad memories come back to the surface and the following seasons are marked by injuries, too numerous, very serious. In January 2018, he fell during training in Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Germany), which caused him severe head trauma. He is also placed in intensive care. Convalescence is a terrible, traumatic time. “I needed zero screens, I didn’t have to read, I had to go 10 days without a phone, without anything at all,” he explained to AFP in October 2018.
Eleven months later, he put on a few bibs again, but a fracture in his right knee once again sidelined him from the slopes for the rest of the winter. Fate persists, but the Gapençais has a hard head and strong bones. Aware that his career is not taking the turn he hoped for, the skier from Dévoluy makes a strong decision for the rest of his career: head for speed events. The Frenchman quickly made an impression with his extreme risk-taking which earned him some spectacular off-road events and a reputation as a hothead.
A life-changing decision
Happy in his head, efficient on skis. For several months, Cyprien Sarrazin has been seeing a psychologist to “do work on himself”. After his first success of the season, during the descent from Bormio (Italy), the Habs made similar comments: “I am finally myself at 29, I found myself as a man and it shows on the skis”. He is also accompanied by a mental trainer and an “energy coach”.
A mental trigger that ended up paying off. “Before Bormio, I told myself for three days that I had the right to win, I never allowed myself to win, I had a kind of imposter syndrome.” An “imposter” currently 2nd in the general ranking of the World Cup.