On his little red leader’s chair, Alexis Monney, surrounded by his compatriot Franjo von Allmen and the Canadian Cameron Alexander, his runners-up, looks a little lost. The Fribourgeois did not fully realize the scope of his feat. A few minutes earlier, he performed a demonstration on the terrible Stelvio, between risk-taking and relaxation, to achieve his first World Cup success during the Bormio descent, certainly the most complete on the circuit.
“I don’t know what to say, it’s just a crazy day.” » The hero of the day struggled to find the words on Eurosport’s microphone after his masterpiece. The skier from Châtel-Saint-Denis had a plan and he was able to execute it wonderfully. “Everything was ready, we worked a lot on the video. I didn’t need feedback from others, what I had in my head was the good plan,” he concedes. Already recognized, the junior downhill world champion in 2020 was already sure of his doing, just like his coach, Valentin Crettaz. “Alexis told me that he felt good,” the Valais coach explains to us. “I told him it was his day, that he had to send the sauce and make us dream. He took me at my word. »
“Alexis was on fire”
On a descent which has only crowned thirty-year-olds like Aksel Lund Svindal, Matthias Mayer, Cyprien Sarrazin or the owner of the place Dominik Paris, in recent years, the 24-year-old skier has amazed all the competition at the price of a master’s degree. class. “From the second sector, Alexis put the watts on, then he was on fire on the technical part before pulling off dream curves on the bottom,” admires Valentin Crettaz who admits “to having trembled and to having had tears” after the triumph of his protégé whom he works with from the NLZ structures.
“I had a great feeling on the skis. Normally, it’s always very hard here but here, I felt very good,” continued the young Friborg resident on SRF. Already comfortable during the first training session, the skier from Veveyre was able to achieve the perfect run up and down the Stelvio. “I told myself that it was possible to achieve a good result but not to this extent. Besides, I told myself on skis that I had to push more, because it wasn’t going to be enough. »
More than forty years after Jacques Lüthy for “uncle” Alexis
With Franjo von Allmen, Alexis Monney achieved an incredible double. Imagine the two youngest skiers in the top 30 of the descent finding themselves in front of the scoreboard for the most demanding descent of the season. A performance which was praised by the boss of the circuit Marco Odermatt himself on Eurosport. “It’s extraordinary what they’ve achieved, I don’t know what to say. They deserve such a result,” concedes the Nidwalden who says he is “grateful” to have the two talents from Friborg and Bern at his side. “In our team, no one is the leader, the boss. We really all try to help each other, to have fun. »
Alexis Monney also achieved the feat of taking over in the tables from Jacques Lüthy, the last Friborg to be on a World Cup podium, more than 40 years ago. And as happiness never comes alone, the athlete from Châtel-Saint-Denis also became an uncle this very morning before the race. There will be something to celebrate this evening for Alexis and her dad Louis who was present at the foot of the Stelvio to encourage his champion.
Johan Tachet/LMO
