There will be no French medal in skicross at the Beijing Olympics. For the second edition in a row. After the zero points of the Blues in Pyeongchang (South Korea), in 2018, they left the track of the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou, 180 kilometers north of Beijing, with the same results, Friday February 18. The Swiss Ryan Regez won the title ahead of his compatriot Alex Fiva and the Russian Sergei Ridzik. How far away is the historic hat-trick achieved in Sochi (Russia) in 2014.
However, when arriving in China, the French team had serious assets to hope to shine again on the only discipline of freestyle based on a time. François Place, world champion in 2019 and vice-world champion in 2021. Jean-Frédéric Chapuis, who won Olympic gold in 2014. Above all, Terence Tchiknavorian and Bastien Midol, respectively second and third in the general classification of the Cup in the world: four podiums since the start of the season, including a victory in Val Thorens (Savoie) for the first; same observation for the second, with a title in Innichen (Italy).
The youngest of the Midol brothers had above all been able to test the Olympic track – although it was slightly modified for the Olympics – at the opening of the World Cup, in November 2021, with a podium at the key (3and). He will fail in the quarter-finals. Repeat the exploit of the Caucasus? the French even allowed themselves to think about it. “If All the Planets Align”said Jean-Frédéric Chapuis.
Jade Grillet-Aubert, 14and in girls
Friday, the planets were not aligned and the dream came to an end for the only survivor of the glorious Russian hours. Disturbed by back pain, the skier from Val Thorens, currently 25and of the World Cup, failed in the round of 16 of the event. Terence Tchiknavorian stopped at the same stage of the competition: he will not have succeeded in erasing the failure of Pyeonchang, where his Olympic adventure was interrupted, again in 8are finals after a heavy fall which took him away from skiing for several months.
Bastien Midol, he will stall in the quarters. François Place in the semi-finals. The fault of a failed start, will analyze the native of Albertville after the race: “It’s a very physical course without speed, when I come back to other people’s ass I don’t have much left. »
“We did not know how to be regular on the departureswill abound Thomas Frey, one of the coaches of the France team. We had everything else, the technical part, the glide. But to be Olympic champion, you have to make four perfect starts, on a track that is not very selective. » Alpine skiing defector, “Foué” – his nickname – will finish 8andbetter than its 10and place in South Korea. Small consolation prize.
The day before, the only Frenchwoman entered, Jade Grillet-Aubert, had finished 14and in the women’s event, won by Sweden’s Sandra Näslund.
No group shooting. No medal. In China, there will have been no controversy either. In Sochi, Canada and Slovenia had seized the Court of Arbitration for Sport to obtain the disqualification of the three Frenchmen. In question: the lower part of the skiers’ pants, which had created, according to them, an aerodynamic effect. Eight years later, in China, all-lined, tight-fitting outfits, modeled on alpine suits, are now the norm.