The party is over. The Méribel and Courchevel 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships ended on Sunday February 19 with the victory of Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen in the men’s slalom. On the sporting level, the French did not fully meet expectations, obtaining two medals against three desired by the president of the French Ski Federation (FFS), Fabien Saguez.
For the tricolor clan, the disappointment was particularly felt in the eyes of Tessa Worley who had made these worlds an ultimate challenge, thus postponing the end of her career a little more. Leaving the track in the second round of the giant, the latter admitted to feeling a certain disappointment. « It ends very suddenly, she reacted at a press conference. I wanted to cross this line having given everything and being proud of myself. It is, but it ended too quickly. »
A tricolor clan called upon to renew itself
The champion harbored regrets when, at the same time, her compatriot Alexis Pinturault proved that time had no hold on him. By obtaining, at home, a gold medal in the combined and bronze in the super-G, the Savoyard capsized the hearts of a French people hitherto orphan of medals.
From now on, the objective of the FFS will be to renew the French team, by betting on a promising youth, embodied by the hopeful Alban Elezi Cannaferina (19 years old) or Julia Simon (26 years old), arrived at a frustrating 5th place of the individual test.« It’s never guaranteed to find champions as great as previous generations. And at the same time, those who are preparing to play their last World Cup leave a form of legacy,” confided Fabien Saguez.
Drones, on-board cameras… An immersive dive
At the time of the assessment, it is clear that beyond the lackluster sports performances of the French or the confirmations at the highest level of the legends Mikaela Shiffrin and Marco Odermatt, the 2023 world championships in Méribel and Courchevel have distinguished by a completely different aspect: the art of offering spectators a totally immersive dive into the world of skiing.
Drones, on-board cameras, better sound recording to experience the race in the shoes of the athletes, everything has been brought together to make these world championships a real success in terms of audience and recognition from the athletic world itself.
The realism of the images
In his autobiography From gold to crystalpublished in October 2022, the skier Alexis Pinturault had also regretted the lack of « storytelling » around his discipline. Like Formula 1, which has experienced a resurgence in notoriety thanks to the series Drive to survive broadcast on the Netflix platform, the champion wanted to “telling stories about alpine ski champions”, emphasizing production and beautiful images. “What has changed is above all the television production, he explained. The channels use on-board cameras to bring the race to life in a different way, they make things livelier. »
Desired, done. The 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships in Méribel and Courchevel struck a chord with the realism of the images. The revolution brought about by drone recordings delivered sensational images to the public throughout the competition.
“Like a video game”
In an interview for the newspaper Ski Chronothe drone pilot, Martin Bochatay was not mistaken: “My mission is to follow the athletes and be immersed with them, to deliver images where we are with the skier in the race. We have the point of view of the skier during the race, like a video game. »
With these world championships, forerunners in this field, spectators have perhaps won a precious sesame: the guarantee of seeing more and more spectacular and immersive competitions in the future. And we are looking forward to it.
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Thousands of spectators at the foot of the slopes
A total of 75 nations and 600 athletes participated at the 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships in Méribel and Courchevel. The organizers have announced up to 20,000 spectators on average per competition day.
This is the first time that a duo of stations, Méribel and Courchevel, are working together to organize the Worlds in the French Alps.
With 3 gold medals, 3 silver medals, and 1 bronze medal, Switzerland leads the medal standings. Norway is second (2 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze) and the United States third (2 gold and 2 silver). France ranks sixth.