Jean-Baptiste Grange, the beautiful story

Jean-Baptiste Grange did not become champion of the world slalom Sunday, February 15th. He is back . And it is almost inconceivable. "When I knew I was at least bronze medalist, I started to cry , tells the French skier . I thought about what I had experienced. »

That between 2007 and 2015, among the first podium of his career at the World of Are ( Norway , bronze) and the last ones to Beaver Creek (USA), Jean-Baptiste Grange sometimes explored the tops of its sports , but also the bottom of the crevasses, more often than not.
BACK IN A CORSET
The two peaks: a title of world champion in slalom in 2011 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen ( Germany , video below), two years after the small crystal globe in the discipline, which rewards the winner of the World Cup, c that is to say, the most consistent skiers throughout the season (10 races).

Crevices: multiple injuries. First cruciate ligaments in his right knee, that drop in 2009 (on the Beaver Creek trail, actually), and deprive Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. Then the left shoulder, which spoils him the 2010 season -2011, up to a doubling Royal Kitzbühel-Schladming World Cup, and his triumph at the World Championships in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Then the back, back he had to enclose in a corset for a year when he was 11, and had almost the prevent of becoming a professional skier, he began to spoil life: "When in the morning, the small lunch , you get up with difficulty, and you are not able to you down to take a bowl ... " , he told L'Equipe Mag year. And finally, again the knee, at the end of 2011-2012 season, a consequence of his back problems.

FOUR YEARS WITHOUT PODIUM

The injury is part of the life of the high-level sport - and this is perhaps even more true for skiers in others. The injury may even allow his victim to grow and progress , in a way. "But it was heavy, it was the series of injuries . After my second knee injury, I was in the hole " recalls Grange .
Then the Savoyard was hooked. "You hooks because the skiing is your passion. There is also the passion of the competition. This t ' help to move forward , but it destroys you too, because you do not manage to do what you want. I was skiing well, but I just could ride over, I began to me to say that I was no longer able to go look for a medal.

After four years without a podium, we would have said the same thing. Since 1448 Days - February 27, 2011, a third place in slalom in Bansko ( Bulgaria ) - Grange had disappeared from head trios. The Games Olympic Sochi last winter, it was well placed after the first run (5 th ), before being a victim, like half of the competitors, the ridiculously difficult route of the second (cancel).

YET TO DISCOVER THE OLYMPIC FLAVOR

This season on the World Cup, the skier from Valloire had managed to place four times in the top ten but never do better than a 6 th  place in Adelboden ( Switzerland ). And sequencing depressing Kitzbühel-Schladming (21 th , 26 th ) last month did not leave quite predict a successful outcome at the World of Beaver Creek. "I'm proud of myself , maybe even after my for 2011 , welcomes Grange . Because behind, there has been a lot of effort and sacrifice, I can not believe it. This medal has a special taste. »
Remains a flavor that the skier to false air of Edouard Baer has not experienced: that of an Olympic medal. The next Games will be held in Pyeongchang in South Korea in February 2018. Jean-Baptiste Grange will then 33 years. Too old? Austria's Mario Matt had 34 last year in Sochi, and it had not prevented him from going faster than everyone between the posts.