“I accept sometimes to be a little less good”, admits Noël
Olympic slalom champion Clément Noël, competing on Sunday in Kitzbühel (Austria), hopes to tackle an important series of races with “confidence”, after a 6th place snatch in difficult conditions in Wengen (Switzerland) last week.
Noël, crowned Olympic champion last winter in Beijing, is having a difficult season with three outings, a podium (3rd) in Garmisch (Germany) at the start of January, and a 6th place in Wengen last Sunday on a track in poor condition.
“Wengen was important, it’s still frustrating in terms of results, but that’s where you have to go, through races without overdoing it, passing all the gates, without accelerating too much, being well balanced, with a little restraint. . That’s how I had to approach this race to kick off the end of January, trying to avoid the disaster of always coming out. Rather than putting me in a negative spiral, it allows me to attack important races with more confidence,” he said during a press briefing.
A winner’s mind
The 25-year-old Vosgien lines up on Sunday in Kitzbühel, where he won in 2019, before continuing in Schladming on Tuesday then in Chamonix on February 4, the last slalom before that of the Courchevel / Méribel Worlds on February 19.
“I still don’t accept being behind, far from the best, but I’m more lucid about my situation, I know that sometimes you have to go through worse results. I accept sometimes to be a little less good, to go there less at 100% to + put races down +, it is necessary.
After Wengen, the French slalomers trained at Reiteralm in Austria where they were able to meet the current N.1 in slalom, the Norwegian Henrik Kristoffersen, accompanied by the Austrian legend Marcel Hirscher, boss of his new equipment supplier Van Deer.
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