Alpine Skiingthe interview
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Interviewed by "Ski Chrono", the transalpine champion dreams of a world gold medal in the home review and bitterly comments on the situation linked to the calendars: "With 14 descents and only 7 super-gs, even running on the three disciplines there is no hope".
Saturday 2 July 2022 4 minutes reading time
Alexis Pinturault is already pulling himself out of the fight for the next overall World Cup, at least in words.
The winner of the 2020/21 crystal ball is back from perhaps the most difficult year of his entire career, without Olympic medals and concluding the race for the cup, dominated by Marco Odermatt in front of Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, only in tenth position (his worst result in a decade).
The mental energy spent to achieve the dream of a lifetime, as the champion from Courchevel has repeatedly reiterated, was decisive in the negative in the first year after the triumph in the general, but for the 2022/23 season the objectives are not lacking for Pinturault, at starting from the home world championships.
Speaking to his colleagues at “Ski Chrono”, the transalpine ace, however, was very clear about his (non) cup ambitions. “First of all I hope to go back to winning a race (which he did not succeed in 2021/22, ed), world gold in any discipline is a goal. The absolute crystal ball? I will not aim for it because I do not have the means to do it - confesses Alexis - Just look at the calendar: there is an imbalance between the disciplines, with only 7 super-gs in spite of 14 descents. Therefore, the sprinters capable of collecting important points in giant (Odermatt and Kilde above all) will have 31 races available against the 27 of the specialists of the technical disciplines who will expand up to the super-g (where, among other things, we talk about now of "mini descents" in most cases).
There is a potential 400 points of difference, too many. So I will not do a greater number of speed races to get points, I will limit myself to the more technical super-gs ".
Pinturault will return on skis at the beginning of August, then in August the flight to Ushuaia for the return to Argentina, where he will stay with his teammates for four weeks, until 11 September. "The body and the head needed a long break - he tells Ski Chrono, also referring to the holidays in Ecuador - I trust the work I do with Martin Hager (his trainer at Red Bull, ed), obviously we adapt also to my state of form or fatigue to respect the program ".
On training in Ushuaia, the combined world champion at Are 2019 explains: “It is a very important session, especially for the work on materials. There we will be able to ski in different conditions passing from the South American winter to spring. And four weeks are a long time, but necessary ".
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