As much as Sunday was hard to digest, after the disappointment of 4th place for Perrine Laffont, the past night made us vibrate.
French night
Johan Clarey is huge. Born under Giscard, the 41-year-old Tignard became the oldest medalist in alpine skiing in the history of the Olympic Games by finishing second in the queen event, the downhill, between the Swiss Beat Feuz and the Austrian Matthias Mayer. To within 10 hundredths, he could even have beaten the immense Feuz.
“Yoyo”, his nickname in the blue camp, dedicated his success to his family and especially to David Poisson, his former teammate who tragically died during training in Canada on November 13, 2017. The other Blues? Maxence Muzaton is 11th, Blaise Giezendanner 26th and Matthieu Bailet 27th.
Second in the big air qualifications, Tess Ledeux can also hope to get on the box during the final scheduled for Tuesday. The 20-year-old Blue shone on the first jump, assured on the second and fell on the third, but the essential is there.
The perf of the night
Olympic slopestyle vice-champion in Pyeongchang, Max Parrot covered himself in gold last night. Already, it’s beautiful. But in addition, between the two appointments at the Olympics, the 27-year-old Canadian suffered from cancer, just a few months after the silver of 2018. “Giving up was never an option”, explained Parrot , who had put his career on hold for six months, in particular to undergo chemotherapy sessions. “Coming back to participate in these Games was even a huge source of motivation to beat cancer. ” What more can be said ?
🚨DOUBLE PODIUM FOR #TEAMCANADA 🚨
Max Parrot and Mark McMorris win gold and bronze in snowboard slopestyle 🏂
Details ➡️ https://t.co/Q2grr0Mqv7 pic.twitter.com/CzIuzwixRu
— Team Canada (@Team_Canada) February 7, 2022
The failure of the night
Not easy to speak of “failure”, as Jarl Magnus Riiber is probably not for much in what happens to him. But the Norwegian, huge favorite for the Nordic combined Olympic titles, is on his sixth day of isolation after testing positive for Covid on his arrival in Beijing.
“He needs two negative tests to get out before 10 days,” explained his trainer Jan Schmid at a press conference on Monday. “We don’t really know what happens after 10 days. So the normal hill test [mercredi] is impossible in any case.
Riiber, untouchable for two and a half years in the World Cup, “hopes” according to him to be able to participate in the large hill event, whose official training begins on Saturday and the competition takes place on February 15.