Faivre earns first World Cup victory in Val d’Isere

By Published On: December 4th, 2016Comments Off on Faivre earns first World Cup victory in Val d’Isere

Of the last 38 World Cup giant slalom races, only four were not won by Ted Ligety, Marcel Hirscher or Alexis Pinturault. Sunday was one of those days. Mathieu Faivre of France won his first-ever FIS Alpine World Cup race in front of a home crowd in Val d’Isere, finishing with a combined time of 2:25.01. Accompanying him on the podium was Hirscher and Pinturault, who finished in second and third place.

Faivre called the day “amazing,” and when asked about what he did differently in the offseason to prepare for the winter, his answer was simple.

“I just keep working,” he said. “To train with the other French guys, it’s very good, too, to be better, so I’m very happy about my summer.”

ALPINE SKIING - FIS WC Val D IsereHirscher, who was 0.49 seconds off the winning pace, repeated his performance from Soelden. The Austrian has won at Val d’Isere four times before and was hoping to make Sunday’s race number five, but he could not catch Faivre’s second run time.

Today, he [was] nearly unbeatable because I mean my second run was really not too bad, but I had no chance against Mathieu,” the Austrian shared.

Pinturault was able to move up three spots thanks to his ripping second run to land in the third podium spot. The Frenchman was 1.11 seconds off the winning pace.

“It was pretty unexpected to be on the podium after my first run, so I just wanted to attack, push really hard,” Pinturault said. 

Pinturault and Hirscher are now tied for the lead in the giant slalom standings with 160 points a piece while the Austrian has taken the overall lead with 280 points.

No doubt the French giant slalom skiers have been pushing each other training, as they snagged four of the top five spots today with Thomas Fanara and Victor Muffat-Jeandet skiing just off the podium in fourth and fifth place.

Henrik Kristoffersen returned to the circuit for the race. Last season’s slalom globe winner was absent from the Levi, Finland, slalom last month while dealing with an ongoing spat with the Norwegian federation regarding his helmet sponsor. Today, he raced with Telenor on his helmet and skied to eighth place.

After a tough downhill for the American men, the team seemed to find its rhythm in giant slalom with five of the six starters earning top-30 results. Ligety led the team with an 11th-place finish while Tommy Ford took advantage of his second run starting position to take 14th place.

“It’s too bad that Beaver Creek was canceled or had to be moved to here,” Ford said. “But they did a great job here, and the snow was awesome and it’s fun to have our team go for it.”

Tim Jitloff finished the day in 18th place. Cochran-Siegle had a career-best GS finish, landing in 22nd position. David Chodounsky picked up at 27th place result. Brennan Rubie did not finish the first run.

VAL D ISERE,FRANCE,04.DEC.16 - ALPINE SKIING - FIS World Cup Val D Isere, giant slalom, men. Image shows Erik Read (CAN). Photo: GEPA pictures/ Andreas Pranter

Erik Read was the lone member of Canadian team to make the top 30, moving from bib 52 all the way to ninth place. It was the first time that Read earned World Cup giant slalom points and his first World Cup finish in the top 10, although he did finish an unofficial 21st in Beaver Creek last season before being disqualified for an equipment infraction. Read is also the reigning NCAA slalom champion and will look to defend his title at Cannon Mountain, New Hampshire, come March. Trevor Philp and Phil Brown did not qualify for a second run, and Dustin Cook did not finish first run.

NBCSN will broadcast the race at 5 p.m. EST on Sunday. Men’s World Cup action continues next weekend with another giant slalom and a slalom at Val d’Isere.

Fans can stay up to date on World Cup news by downloading the U.S. Ski Team – Ski Racing app for iOS and Android.


Top 10

  1. Mathieu Faivre (FRA) – Head / Head / Head
  2. Marcel Hirscher (AUT) –  Atomic/Atomic/Atomic
  3. Alexis Pinturault (FRA) – Head / Head / Head
  4. Thomas Fanara (FRA) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  5. Victor Muffat-Jeandet (FRA) – Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  6. Luca De Aliprandini (ITA) –  Salomon/Salomon/Salomon
  7. Philipp Schoerghofer (AUT) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  8. Henrik Kristoffersen (NOR) – Rossignol/Rossignol/Look
  9. Erik Read (CAN) – Fischer/Fischer/Fischer
  10. Riccardo Tonetti (ITA) – Voelkl/Tecnica/Marker

Official Results

Rank Bib FIS Code Name Year Nation Run 1 Run 2 Total Time Diff. FIS Points
 1  7  194495 FAIVRE Mathieu 1992 FRA  1:11.63  1:13.38  2:25.01  0.00
 2  6  53831 HIRSCHER Marcel 1989 AUT  1:11.62  1:13.88  2:25.50  +0.49  3.31
 3  5  194364 PINTURAULT Alexis 1991 FRA  1:12.70  1:13.42  2:26.12  +1.11  7.50
 4  4  191750 FANARA Thomas 1981 FRA  1:12.06  1:14.47  2:26.53  +1.52  10.27
 5  13  193967 MUFFAT-JEANDET Victor 1989 FRA  1:12.39  1:14.42  2:26.81  +1.80  12.16
 6  24  990116 DE ALIPRANDINI Luca 1990 ITA  1:13.15  1:13.99  2:27.14  +2.13  14.39
 7  12  51007 SCHOERGHOFER Philipp 1983 AUT  1:12.81  1:14.56  2:27.37  +2.36  15.95
 8  3  422304 KRISTOFFERSEN Henrik 1994 NOR  1:13.23  1:14.16  2:27.39  +2.38  16.08
 9  52  103729 READ Erik 1991 CAN  1:13.79  1:13.72  2:27.51  +2.50  16.90
 10  20  291318 TONETTI Riccardo 1989 ITA  1:12.66  1:14.93  2:27.59  +2.58  17.44
 11  1  534562 LIGETY Ted 1984 USA  1:12.99  1:14.65  2:27.64  +2.63  17.77
 12  9  54063 FELLER Manuel 1992 AUT  1:12.82  1:14.84  2:27.66  +2.65  17.91
 13  26  380335 ZUBCIC Filip 1993 CRO  1:13.61  1:14.09  2:27.70  +2.69  18.18
 14  37  531799 FORD Tommy 1989 USA  1:13.77  1:14.13  2:27.90  +2.89  19.53
 15  14  511896 MURISIER Justin 1992 SUI  1:13.35  1:14.61  2:27.96  +2.95  19.94
 16  2  201702 NEUREUTHER Felix 1984 GER  1:13.24  1:14.81  2:28.05  +3.04  20.54
 17  11  421669 HAUGEN Leif Kristian 1987 NOR  1:13.61  1:14.45  2:28.06  +3.05  20.61
 18  27  534959 JITLOFF Tim 1985 USA  1:13.88  1:14.25  2:28.13  +3.12  21.09
 19  31  422139 KILDE Aleksander Aamodt 1992 NOR  1:13.56  1:14.61  2:28.17  +3.16  21.36
 20  8  292967 EISATH Florian 1984 ITA  1:13.81  1:14.40  2:28.21  +3.20  21.63
 21  23  511852 CAVIEZEL Gino 1992 SUI  1:13.12  1:15.16  2:28.28  +3.27  22.10
 22  49  6530319 COCHRAN-SIEGLE Ryan 1992 USA  1:14.03  1:14.30  2:28.33  +3.32  22.44
 23  18  501017 MYHRER Andre 1983 SWE  1:13.45  1:14.97  2:28.42  +3.41  23.05
 24  36  512182 MEILLARD Loic 1996 SUI  1:13.97  1:14.57  2:28.54  +3.53  23.86
 25  22  292491 MOELGG Manfred 1982 ITA  1:13.89  1:14.79  2:28.68  +3.67  24.80
 26  17  180534 SANDELL Marcus 1987 FIN  1:13.25  1:15.57  2:28.82  +3.81  25.75
 27  45  534508 CHODOUNSKY David 1984 USA  1:14.02  1:15.85  2:29.87  +4.86  32.84
Did not qualify for 2nd run
 58  990081 CASSE Mattia 1990 ITA
 57  561310 HROBAT Miha 1995 SLO
 55  512038 ROGENTIN Stefan 1994 SUI
 54  511638 TUMLER Thomas 1989 SUI
 53  103676 BROWN Phil 1991 CAN
 51  103865 PHILP Trevor 1992 CAN
 48  512269 ODERMATT Marco 1997 SUI
 47  53889 HIRSCHBUEHL Christian 1990 AUT
 46  422073 NETELAND Bjoernar 1991 NOR
 43  422278 WINDINGSTAD Rasmus 1993 NOR
 42  202345 SCHWAIGER Dominik 1991 GER
 41  481327 TRIKHICHEV Pavel 1992 RUS
 40  700830 ZAMPA Adam 1990 SVK
 38  422112 PATRICKSSON Axel William 1992 NOR
 34  291459 PARIS Dominik 1989 ITA
 33  53980 KRIECHMAYR Vincent 1991 AUT
 29  192506 MISSILLIER Steve 1984 FRA
 28  990048 BORSOTTI Giovanni 1990 ITA
 15  202437 LUITZ Stefan 1992 GER
 10  294890 NANI Roberto 1988 ITA
Did not finish 2nd run
 21  54031 LEITINGER Roland 1991 AUT
 19  561244 KRANJEC Zan 1992 SLO
 16  511313 JANKA Carlo 1986 SUI
Did not finish 1st run
 60  151060 PAULUS Daniel 1994 CZE
 59  30149 SIMARI BIRKNER Cristian Javier 1980 ARG
 56  304242 NARITA Hideyuki 1993 JPN
 50  100558 COOK Dustin 1989 CAN
 44  700879 ZAMPA Andreas 1993 SVK
 39  934568 RUBIE Brennan 1991 USA
 35  150644 KRYZL Krystof 1986 CZE
 32  421483 JANSRUD Kjetil 1985 NOR
 30  51159 NOESIG Christoph 1985 AUT
 25  501324 OLSSON Matts 1988 SWE

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About the Author: Gabbi Hall

A California native, Gabbi moved to Vermont to ski on the NCAA circuit for St. Michael’s College, where she served as team captain and studied journalism. Before joining Ski Racing, she worked as a broadcast TV producer and social media manager in higher education. She can be reached via email at gabbi@skiracing.com