If he had to put an end to his season due to a knee injury, Alexis Pinturault confirmed his plans for next season, which will be the last of his career, with the desire to give everything during the next winter games.
Alexis Pinturault has made things clear. Victim of a fracture of the internal tibial platform of the right knee in Kitzbühel on January 24, the skier of Courchevel spoke this Friday during a videoconference in which he confirmed what he had already discussed recently on the waves of
Radio Courchevel. “I did not want to stop on an injury,” said the double world champion in the alpine handset in comments collected by the daily The team.
Reassured by the diagnosis, with an injury distant from the one who held back it a little over a year ago, Alexis Pinturault also saw the results of the last exams to consolidate it. “I had a scanner on Thursday, very reassuring, after six weeks of immobilization,” he added. Everything is in working order, it’s very positive. The protocol is reduced, I left the crutches on Thursday, and I can hope for skiing in a month without pain. »»
Pinturault: “I have no time to waste”
But, beyond wanting to end his career on skis, the triple Olympic medalist saw a final source of motivation in the winter games organized next February in Milan and Cortina. For this, Alexis Pinturault decided to put all his eggs in the same basket by focusing his efforts only on the giant slalom, thus confirming his wish to abandon the speed tests to which he had turned in recent months. “I have no time to waste, I will focus on my strongest discipline,” he says. I will attack the season with the bib 28, and I have to focus on what I master best. »»
If he will keep the regret not to have “went to the end of (his) project” while considering that this is “constrained and forced”, the ambition has taken over. “It’s not pleasant, but if I want to have an ambition of performance, I have to focus on a single discipline,” insisted Alexis Pinturault. I have to take points, improve my bibs to return to the best in the world. »»
Pinturault: “finish as professionally as possible”
For this, the skier of Courchevel confirmed his return to the federal fold, even if he will keep a personal physical trainer. “Continuing with a complete structure did not make sense,” he said. It is more adequate to be with the France group, and I will no longer have a basis in Austria either. The French technical group is very promising, with young people who arrive at a good level. “As for the idea of permanently hanging on skis in a little over a year, at the end of the 2025-2026 World Cup season, the native of Moûtiers concedes that it is linked to the fact that he” goes around in a certain way of (his) sport “.
“I am motivated by coming back for the games, I want to finish as professionally as possible, then a time ago for everything,” he concluded. After there will also be my life as a man, and I will turn to other things. From there to occupy a place in the organization of the winter games planned in the French Alps in 2030, there is only one step that he did not dare to take. “We’ll see later,” he missed.
