Unheralded French skier Rassat beats Belgium’s Marchant in World Cup slalom for 1st career win

GURGL, Austria (AP) — Unheralded French skier Paco Rassat earned his first career World Cup victory Saturday, winning the second slalom of the Olympic season thanks to a blistering second run.

Rassat’s triumph came six days after his previous best result, placing sixth in the season-opening slalom in Levi, Finland.

“I never imagined this was possible,” he told Austrian TV.

With less than three months until the Milan Cortina Winter Games, Rassat could hardly have picked a better time for his breakthrough.

“For sure, I want to be at the Olympics,” he said. “My goal at the moment is to perform on the World Cup, to qualify for the Olympics.”

Racing in cold but sunny conditions in the Austrian Alps, Rassat was 14th after the opening run but posted the fastest second-run time by far and finished 0.07 seconds ahead of Armand Marchant, who gave Belgium its first-ever podium in Alpine skiing’s World Cup.

First-run leader Atle Lie McGrath of Norway dropped to third, 0.09 behind Rassat.

“This is insane,” said Rassat, who was 0.27 seconds faster than any other racer in the final run. “My dream just came true today, so this is amazing.”

The son of a ski instructor, Rassat started practicing the sport at a young age.

Specializing in the slalom discipline, the Frenchman made his World Cup debut in January 2022 and got his first top-10 result three years later, placing ninth in the classic race in Wengen, Switzerland.

He said it meant “a lot, for sure” that his parents were attending Saturday’s race.

“My dad was my first coach and my mother also worked at the club, so this is a big day for us and I’m so, so happy to share it with them,” said Rassat, who turned 27 last week.

His victory even sent him to the top of the slalom and overall standings after three events.

Four-time overall champion Marco Odermatt won the season-opening giant slalom in Austria four weeks ago, but the Swiss star does not compete in slaloms.

Finnish prodigy Eduard Hallberg shared second place with Swiss racer Tanguy Nef after the opening run but lost his balance in a right turn and fell shortly before the finish.

Hallberg earned Finland’s first World Cup podium result in nearly 18 years last week by finishing third in his home race in Levi.

Nef dropped to fifth.

Lucas Pinheiro Braathen, who gave Brazil its first-ever Alpine skiing World Cup win last week, finished 10th, and Olympic champion Clement Noel of France was 12th.

Slalom world champion Loic Meillard was 20th after the opening run before the Swiss skier failed to finish his second, a week after he started the season in 14th in the race in Finland.

A women’s slalom on the same hill is scheduled for Sunday, while the men’s World Cup continues with the first speed race of the season: a super-G in Copper Mountain, Colorado, on Thursday.

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AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/alpine-skiing