Lover of speed, novice in downhill, dented… Who is Cyprien Sarrazin, who entered the history of French skiing?

2023-12-28 18:35:01

Winner this Thursday on the demanding Italian slope, the skier from Hautes-Alpes achieved the greatest success of his career at 29 years old. An exceptional performance which rewards his reconversion as a downhiller and his perseverance after several difficult seasons.

“One of the best descents of my career”. This confession made by the Swiss Marco Odermatt, reigning world champion in downhill, says a lot about the majuscule performance achieved by his surprising tormentor of the day. This Thursday in Bormio (Italy), Cyprien Sarrazin beat the favorite of the event by nine hundredths to achieve his greatest success, at the end of a supersonic descent despite the demands of the legendary Stelvio track. Fourth Frenchman to win a round in the discipline in the World Cup in the 21st century, after Antoine Dénériaz (2002), Pierre-Emmanuel Dalcin (2007) and Adrien Théaux (2015), the skier from Devoluy (Hautes-Alpes) has just enter the history of French alpine skiing. He joins Luc Alphand, the last blue-white-red winner in Bormio, in 1996.

“I finally had a perfect round, I felt really good, savored the champion of the day, at the microphone ofEurosport. When I crossed the line, I told myself that I had done the job!” Best time on the field during the first training session on Tuesday, Sarrazin set off, bib 4, with the outsider’s costume. But he exploded all the counters to climb on the first step of the podium in only the 10th start of his career, in downhill in the World Cup.

“The genes” of speed but early on downhill

“I’m having trouble finding the words. After all these injuries and bad times, I feel good, he added. I wasn’t nervous, I was confident, I know I have the skiing to do something. I wasn’t sure I was going to win but I told myself I had to be myself. For a month or two I have found myself.” In the shadow of the world’s best skiers, the Frenchman has “find” by moving towards the descent from the 2022 season, in the style of Alexis Pinturault.

Six years after his first surprise World Cup success – the parallel slalom of Alta Badia in December 2016 – he chose to lean towards speed events to the detriment of technical events. A carefully considered decision by someone who has always loved thrills since he started skiing at the age of six. “It happened naturally, any sooner would have been too soon, he declared at the start of the season to RMC Sport. Everything I did before helped me. I grew up, I matured, I got into the World Cup at speed last year, I had never had the opportunity to go to World Cups, even if I had been doing them since always elsewhere. (…) In my genes, I have always had the genes for speed. Whether skiing or mountain biking, I have always had a taste for adrenaline, speed and instinct.”

Injuries and blows

At 29, the new downhiller Sarrazin says he is fulfilled and has reached sporting maturity. His fourth place obtained at the super G in Val Gardena on December 15 gave hope for a bright winter. The feat achieved under the Bormio sun validated all his efforts, making us forget his past struggles on a physical level. In 2018, for his third season in the World Cup, he experienced two terrible setbacks in the space of a few months. A head trauma caused by a heavy fall during training in Germany in January, followed by a fracture of the tibial plateau at Alta Badia in December, fate seemed to be hard on the Frenchman. But to his pride, the latter shone on his return with a 2nd place snatched in the giant slalom of the same resort, at the end of 2019.

Battered and intermittent on the world stage, the high-alpine skier remained persevering, keeping his sights set on the Courchevel-Méribel World Championships in February 2023. A major deadline at home that he ultimately missed like his compatriots Victor Muffat-Jeandet, Matthieu Bailet and Thibaut Favrot. Back injury this time… Ten months later, it was finally in Lombardy, in the heart of the Italian Alps, that Cyprien Sarrazin wrote the most beautiful page in his history. An additional page in the great book of French skiing, which now has 21 victories in the Downhill World Cup, 11 among the men. “Congratulations to Cyprien Sarrazin, who really had a crazy round!”concludes Marco Odermatt, master of the discipline, very complimentary towards the brilliant student.