He signed the biggest comeback in the history of the Alpine Skiing World Cup. Only twenty-ninth after the first run, the Norwegian Lucas Braathen won the slalom in Wengen, Switzerland, on Sunday January 16. The 21-year-old Braathen crushed the second run, drawn by his coach, recording almost a second ahead of the second fastest time, to edge the Swiss Daniel Yule by 22 hundredths and the Italian Giuliano Razzoli by 29 hundredths .
“It’s really amazing”, dropped the skier from Oslo in the finish area, between laughter and tears, still flabbergasted at having triumphed in ” one of [ses] favorite places in the world to ski », acclaimed by more than 10,000 spectators.
Sunday’s victory has a taste of “revenge”, confided the Norwegian, atypical skier to the Brazilian mother, who speaks Portuguese and designed her own fashion collection. A little over a year ago, he fell heavily at the finish of the giant slalom in Adelboden – in a valley near Wengen -, toppling on his head after the final 60% slope and tearing his ligament. medial left knee.
“I could slide down the toughest slopes in the world and suddenly I couldn’t walk or feed myself”, he said in December in Val d’Isère. On the advice of his compatriots Aksel Lund Svindal and Kjetil Andre Aamodt, two Norwegian alpine legends now retired from the circuit, the young Scandinavian had “erased skiing from (his) life” for two months, focusing on “friends, family, make projects outside of sport”.
Drive out evil demons
But if Lucas Braathen estimated in December to have ” learned a lot “ from this experience, the trauma resurfaced last week in Adelboden, where the skier cut his effort rather than face the final wall. With this victory – the second of his career after the giant of Sölden (Austria), in October 2020 – the young man chases away bad demons.
However, another Norwegian almost stole the show. Fastest time in the first run, Henrik Kristoffersen – a pure slalom specialist – had the victory between the skis, before making a mistake on the very last gates of the course, which sent him off the track.
For their part, the French Clément Noël and Alexis Pinturault finished respectively 8and and 9and of the race. “I would have preferred to do real skiing to win the race, and go out, what to do that”, reacted Clément Noël, second best slalomer in the world for the past three seasons. Alexis Pinturault, holder of the big globe but left behind this season in the general classification, admitted to having missed ” of confidence “, and now hope “get in shape at the Games” Beijing Olympics (February 4 to 20) to win the gold it lacks.