A ski that straddles a door at full speed, a foot that jams and an ankle that breaks. This is sometimes the lot of professional skiers and it is the terrible mishap that has just happened to Frenchman Victor Muffat-Jeandet during the Zagreb slalom this Thursday.
He suffers from a fractured right ankle. And his chances of competing in the Olympic slalom in Beijing in five weeks are mortgaged, not to say zero. Even if a final verdict on his injury will not be delivered until the next few days.
Deplorable conditions
What annoys the French camp considerably is that this slalom in Croatia should never have taken place. He turned to the pantalonnade being definitively stopped during the first run after the passage of only 19 skiers.
Already postponed from Wednesday to Thursday for lack of snow, the event should not have been contested. Despite slight falls during the night, the powder was still not there. And after a few passages of riders, the conditions were no longer met for the fairness of the event.
“Our sport has been ridiculed, said a member of the French clan. We don’t say that Victor’s injury is totally due to this because the guys have sometimes skied in more complicated conditions. But if common sense had prevailed, he would not have taken the start. As the trail got steeper, he hit a door where a hole had started to close. The result is disastrous for France, which loses a chance to shine at the Games. There is a big nervousness with us. “
“With such a spectacle, the ski has just shot itself in the foot”
The French camp is very angry with the Croatian federation for having maintained at all costs its test while the ridiculous pointed the tip of its spatula. “There was clearly a lobbying of the Croats, we sigh. This proves that wanting to ski at all costs in places that are not high enough can turn into disaster. With such a spectacle, the ski has just shot itself in the foot ”. And even with ski boots it hurts.
In the tricolor camp, Alexis Pinturault, the winner of the last World Cup, is disappointed. He cracked a post on Instagram. “Today was too much, he wrote to the address of the international federation… I am just irritated and I have a heavy heart for my friend Victor. I cross my fingers for him and wait for news. ”
Romane Pinturault, his wife, understands her husband’s annoyance. “It’s been two days since skiing was ridiculous in this story,” she explains. We do not understand that the race could have started. It was nonsense. And unfortunately, there is a guy who paid the price for this story. “