Alexis Pinturault: Shock French Team Omission

The greatest winner in French alpine skiing, Alexis Pinturault was not selected for the Milan-Cortina Olympics (February 6-22), he who dreamed at the age of 34 of a final Olympic participation after two winters weighed down by serious injuries, according to the selection list published Monday by the CNOSF.

The Courchevel skier with 34 World Cup victories, three Olympic podiums and three world titles, lacking big results this winter, was not selected among the seven men selected in alpine skiing, including Olympic slalom champion Clément Noël and winter revelation Paco Rassat.

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A half-surprise in the microcosm of French skiing…

If France sends its largest delegation to Italy for the Winter Games with 160 athletes (158 + 2 replacements for bobsleigh), alpine skiing was disillusioned ten days ago when it understood that instead of the 11 places expected for men, it would ultimately only obtain seven (eight for women) due to a complex rule for allocating Olympic quotas between countries by the International Ski Federation (FIS).

For some skiers (Clément Noël, Paco Rassat, the speed specialist Nils Allègre), the selection was not in doubt but for the others, the selectors had enough to tear their hair out. They favored the most efficient athletes at the start of the season – Nils Alphand and Maxence Muzaton in speed, Steven Amiez and Léo Anguenot in technique – by giving up Alexis Pinturault.

A big disappointment for Pinturault

At almost 35 years old (March 20), the skier from Courchevel had made the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games one of his main sources of motivation to continue his career after two serious knee injuries (January 2024, January 2025).

He had decided this season to abandon the speed events to concentrate on the giant, hoping for an Olympic qualification, but the results this winter (three top-15s, five top-20s in six World Cup races) were not enough.

“I used the words race against time, I did not talk about preparation with the aim of the Olympic Games. I was clear about the fact that there are a lot of things to rebuild in a very short time”he said at the beginning of January.

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11 days before the Olympics, the CNOSF validated the selection of 35 new athletes who will represent the French delegation in Nordic combined, ski jumping, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, freestyle skiing and snowboarding. In snowboardcross, Léa Casta, Julia Nirani-Pereira and Chloé Trespeuch were logically selected. All three have particularly shone since the start of the World Cup season, with two victories and three podiums.