| CHENAL Joel (FRA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10.10.1973 Moutiers 177cm / 78kg Club: Douanes La Rosiere/Savoie SKI: Fischer BOOTS: Lange BINDING: Fischer |
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| Joel Chenal's dream came true in "wonderful" Alta Badia. "This
is the most wonderful Christmas gift I could receive - I could not dream
of something better," said an elated Joel Chenal after the dramatic
giant slalom held today on the demanding "Gran Risa" course in
Italy's Alta Badia. The Frenchman, who had just won the race, was surrounded by hundreds of excited spectators who jumped into the finish area after the arrival of the last racer from the second run. They were loudly celebrating Chenal's victory as it was an Italian victory. "It's crazy, I can't believed it," said the winner with a broken voice and tears in his eyes. His teammates had carried him in triumph on their shoulders around the finish area. Suddenly it was too much for the Frenchman whose could no longer keep his emotions under control. This isn't surprising, since it was also his very first World Cup victory. He chose the perfect place to achieve his greatest dream. He won the jackpot. At 26, the modest and shy Joel Chenal just conquered one of the highest peaks of alpine ski racing after beating "The Herminator" himself by 8/100 of a second, and also beating a dozen of other "top-guns" of the specialty. As Norway's Kjetil Aamodt, the 1994 Overall World Cup Champion and GS World Champion in 1993, Christian Mayer, Hans Knauss and Michael von Gruenigen, some of the most recent winners here, Rainer Salzgeber and Andreas Schifferer, silver and bronze medals winners in past World Championships. For a giant slalom skier, winning a race at Alta Badia or Adelboden in Switzerland is like cracking the jackpot in Las Vegas on the biggest machine - it's almost a blessing. It's like winning Kitzbuhel's Hahnenkamm downhill for a speed specialist, or winning The Masters for a golfer, Wimbledon for a tennis player, or Paris Roubaix for a cyclist. "Look at the list of winners here ? and I'm so proud that my name will also be on it," added Joel at the prize ceremony. In fact, many names of past great ski heroes are on this list - from Sweden's legendary Ingemar Stenmark in 1985 to Michael von Grunigen last winter, and including, of course, Alberto Tomba, a triple winner here. A member of the National team for five years, Chenal scored several top-10 places in his career - but his 5th place last year in Slovenia's Kranjska Gora was his best result until today. His season start was fine, but not extraordinary. Some top-15 to warm-up but it was enough to make him confident. "We have trained well last summer and there is an excellent atmosphere in our group," he told the press during his press conference. "We all scored points in Tignes last October and this was a great boost for our morale. Something was happening, we were all feeling it," Chenal said. A custom officer, like many other French racers, Chenal grew up in a lost little village situated on a treacherous pass going from France to Aosta, in the northwest of Italy - Le Petit St Bernard. The road is superb in the summer but closed in the winter because of avalanches. So there is nothing exciting to do for the kids except to ski - with the hope of becoming a member of the local, the regional and then the national ski team. "I wanted to be an Olympic Champion, but this is a good start to reach my goal," he said with a smile. "I'm 26, but some are still winning at 34!" France has a strong tradition of slalom skiers and recently also some top downhillers like Luc Alphand, the 1997 Overall World Cup champion, or Jean Luc Cretier, the 1998 Olympic Champion. But only a few French skiers excelled in giant slalom - like Jean Claude "King" Killy in the 1960s or Patrick Russel in the early 1970s. The last French win in GS goes back to October 1993, when the 1988 super G Olympic Champion Franck Piccard won a race in that event in Austria's Soelden. In the last years, the event was dominated by Tomba, von Grunigen and Maier. Only one French skier has finished on a podium in Alta Badia's back in 1992. It was quite emotional to see that while the French were celebrating Chenal's triumph in one corner of the finish area, the last skier on course in the second run was totally depressed by his misfortune. What a irony and what a parallel also...neither of the two skiers could understand the world anymore and both had wet eyes. Finland's Sami Uotila had been leading after the first run by 8/100 over Christian Mayer and he felt ready to celebrate a great revenge. Three weeks ago, he had been disqualified after his first run in Beaver Creek because the technical supervisor of the International Ski Federation found out that the plate of one of his bindings was 1.5 millimeters too high ? not a big deal, normally. Uotila had just clocked the 8th best time but he was not allowed to start in the second run. Last week he won two Europacup races in France and he travelled with great motivation as well as anger to Alta Badia. |
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Biorama Basel |
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