WORLD CHAMPION ‘PINTU’!

ARE, SWEDEN – FEBRUARY 11: Alexis Pinturault of France in action during the FIS World Ski Championships Men’s Alpine Combined on February 11, 2019 in Are Sweden. (Photo by Hans Bezard/Agence Zoom/Getty Images)

After a Silver in this specialty at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics last year, and 21 World Cup titles to his name, Alexis Pinturault, a Richard Mille partner since 2014, can now add to his trophy cabinet a world championship gold medal in combined. This latest victory came on Monday 11 February in Åre, Sweden. Richard Mille shares in the thrill of celebrating this momentous victory, a result of
unrelenting hard work and adamantine determination. At just 27 years old, the skier from Courchevel has finally secured the title he had long coveted. Says Alexis: ‘I’m very happy. It was a long day, with time lost in downhill, then in slalom, But all’s well that ends well. I’d been on the cusp of this victory for a while, and today it’s paying off—though I almost lost a knee in the first run and have a contusion.’Starting from 24th place, 1.5 seconds behind Italian skier Dominik Paris, world champion in super-G at Åre, Pintu, as he is nicknamed, finished with the second fastest time of the slaom round, after Hadalin. He then had to be patient and wait for the Italian to take his turn, as conditions on the slopes worsened by the hour. His dedication and talent were manifest in some extremely fine skiing, with a perfectly controlled descent all the way to the finish line. The run time speaks for itself, with a lead of 0.24 seconds on Slovenian native Stefan Hadalin, and 0.46 seconds on Austrian Marco Schwarz. To think that just 10 years ago, in 2009, the barely 18-year old Alexis Pinturault competed in his very first World Cup on this same run…This is his second world championship medal, after the bronze he won in 2015, and the world champion still has two opportunities to add to the count: giant, on Friday 15 February, and slalom, on Sunday 17 February.

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