Johan Clarey celebrated his magnificent silver medal on Monday after achieving an exceptional downhill a few hours earlier.
He probably achieved the most beautiful descent of his life. Johan Clarey became Olympic downhill vice-champion on Monday, after an exceptional and fast race. At 41, he became the oldest Olympic medalist in this discipline. “It’s very difficult to achieve what I just did. The week has been difficult for me. If someone had told me that this morning, I wouldn’t have believed it. Everyone says that doing this at 41 is great, but at 41 it’s hard to remobilize every day. This morning I was quite tired but I managed to remobilize myself and I was fine. I had a good run, ”he reacted to the Eurosport microphone after his result. “I’m surrounded by great champions on the podium, it’s fantastic. I will dedicate this to my family, to my parents, to my wife, to all the people who have supported me for all these years,” he added. He also paid tribute to David Poisson, a French skier who died in 2017 while training in Canada. “I have him in mind, he’s one of the first guys I thought of. I think of him a lot”.
Damn dust in the eye…
The emotion of Johan Clarey, who dedicates his beautiful silver medal to the late David Poisson #ChaletClubpic.twitter.com/k9kwTtnCBw
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) February 7, 2022
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. Johan Clarey simply gave in to the Swiss Beat Feuz, who will celebrate his 35th birthday 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 won its second medal – still silver – after that of the mixed biathlon relay on Saturday.
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