PINTURAULT. Passed out of the combined this Thursday, February 10 at the 2022 Olympics, Alexis Pinturault is uncertain for the Giant due to a shoulder injury.
Difficult day for Alexis Pinturault. Expected to win his very first gold medal in the Olympics, the French missed the combined. Worse, when he fell during the slalom, the Frenchman felt “a crack” in his shoulder and could be forfeited this weekend for the Giant of the 2022 Olympics. I’m sorry... I think I made a big mistake on the descent which cost me dearly. Behind, I have the knife to my throat, I only have one option left, I try everything for everything. I attack and I get stuck in a tight double, I swing my feet and the ski sends me forward, which lands me on my elbow. On the slalom there is no assessment to make, neither negative nor positive. I had no choice, the only solution was to attack as much as possible. The balance sheet is bad, in addition to that my physical integrity is perhaps a little affected (he would suffer from a subluxation of the right shoulder). We have to do medical exams. I think it’s not dramatic because I would feel it, but it could be better. I land on my elbow, it goes up my shoulder, I feel a crack. I hope to have answers with the medical report. I am rather optimistic about my possibility of being at the start of the giant. But on my possibility of being 100% I cannot answer now.
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Biography Alexis Pinturault. Alexis Pinturault was born to a French father and a Norwegian mother on March 30, 1991 in Moûtiers, a town located in Savoie. His father, Claude Pinturault, owns a hotel in Courchevel and it is therefore quite natural that the young Alexis turns to winter sports and skiing, even if he practices football for many years in parallel. . He ended up choosing skiing in 2006 and entered, in 2007, the high-level ski section of a high school in Albertville. The results are not long in coming. At the age of 18, during the 2008-2009 season, he won the title of junior giant slalom world champion in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and then quickly moved up to the senior ranks as his talent was so great.
After good performances in the European Cup, Alexis Pinturault made his World Cup debut in 2009. The Savoyard was crowned senior French champion in 2009 (super combined) and 2010 (giant slalom). However, he had to wait until the 2010-2011 season to score his first points and sign his first podium, at less than 20 years old. The Savoyard skier won the first victory of his career the following season at the City Event in Moscow, before confirming in 2012-2013 with three more victories in three different disciplines.
Now fully integrated into the elite of world skiing, Alexis Pinturault left the Sochi Olympics (2014) with a bronze medal in giant slalom and finished the season in third place in the overall World Cup standings. A performance repeated the following two seasons, while winning a first world medal at Beaver Creek in 2015. In January 2017, the Savoyard won his nineteenth World Cup victory and became the Frenchman with the most World Cup victories , exceeding the mythical total of Jean-Claude Killy.
Double medalist (silver and bronze) for his second Olympic Games in Pyeongchang in 2018, Alexis Pinturault took another step forward in 2018-2019 with a gold medal at the Worlds in giant slalom, a second place in the general classification and a third new globe of combined crystal. After the retirement of Marcel Hirscher in 2019, Alexis Pinturault is one of the main contenders for victory in the general classification but the truncated end of the season due to the Covid-19 pandemic does not allow him to defend his chances against Aleksander Aamodt Kilde , which is slightly ahead of it. The Savoyard ended up winning the big crystal globe the following season, succeeding Luc Alphand (1997) in the history of French skiing. An accomplishment.
Alexis Pinturault has one of the finest track records in the history of French skiing. Double world junior giant slalom champion (2009 and 2011), the Savoyard skier also won five individual medals at the world championships (one gold, one silver and three bronze). He is a triple Olympic medalist with two bronze medals in giant slalom and a silver medal in combined. Alexis Pinturault also won the general classification of the World Cup in 2021 and five small crystal globes. He has 74 podiums, including 34 victories, in the World Cup. Alexis Pinturault has also won 9 French championship titles, in 3 of the 5 alpine skiing specialties.
Alexis Pinturault is the highest paid French skier on the circuit, thanks to his performance on skis but also to the many partnerships (Courchevel, Red Bull, Colmar, Head, Richard Mille, Reusch, Bollé…) that he has established since its beginnings more than ten years ago. For example, with his successful 2020-2021 season rewarded with the big crystal globe, the Savoyard has a total prize money of more than 340,000 euros.