“I only have ten days of skiing behind me. That’s why I’m only there as an opener and not competitive. » At the foot of the Lognan stadium in Tignes, just after her slalom round, Aurélie Richard may have moved forward a little. And for good reason, a few minutes later, Thomas Frey, head coach of the French alpine para-ski team, offered her – on the condition that she felt and that she did not force more than her second run – , to participate in the second slalom, this Tuesday. “It was not at all planned before,” he clarified, adding that his participation in the Courchevel giants, Thursday and Friday, was not on the agenda.
The end of the tunnel therefore even if the double 2023 world vice-champion took her trouble patiently. As a regular. Victim for the second time of a cruciate ligament rupture during a warm-up at the Cortina World Cup on 1is Last February, the skier from Ceillac, a small high-Alpine village, will therefore make her return a little month in advance.
Frey: “We will slowly increase pressure so that it is ready in 2026”
More experienced than in 2021 during her first injury, the one we refer to as the future Marie Bochet – who brooded her from her arrival in the World Cup at age 14 in 2019 to her retirement last March – has much better managed this bad period. “I was barely 16 at the time and I had a very bad experience. There, I knew what to expect so I mechanically did it again like the first time but better,” rewinds the one who has spent the last ten months between Hauteville (Ain), the Cers de Saint-Raphaël, the Creps d’ Aix-en-Provence and the Albertville CNE.
A return in complete humility while the Paralympic Games are only 16 months away on the other side of the border. “There is no performance target at the moment. We will slowly build pressure so that it will be ready in 2026,” underlines Frey, not stingy with compliments about his protégé. “She always has a smile, she is very enthusiastic, never shying away from the task and works hard. She’s really a super athlete and all the physiotherapists and physical trainers are unanimous in saying that they are happy to work with her, he continues. We have a group that is very masculine but she is responsive, more and more so and that’s very good. »
Quite simply the future.
Senegal
