Interview
Your injury, your rehab and your return to the snow?
Long, very long. Two months lying down playing Wii and DS. Trips to the rehab center, physio sessions every day and the bitter realization that I cannot do anything. I spent a horrible summer not being able to jump out of planes, rock climbing, or mountain bike. Everything from tennis to golf to biking was forbidden. I did nothing during this summer. To have spent this much time not in the powder and not making one single turn last year really made me angry.
Your goals in Skier-X for next season?
I don’t have any, I want to just return to my level, I have done everything to make this happen but to have a goal that is super high is difficult with my physical condition. This is why I am setting my goal just to take my revenge in Skier-X and take gold in Japan in the Worlds.
Other projects at the moment or for next winter?
I would love shoot a new film about Base-Jumping, like Trip Box, but that is simply impossible. So for this winter, the thing that grabs my heart, is to ski a little of Alaska and short a bit for freeride like a demon.
What do you dream of in your future Skier-X career and with regard to the Olympic Games in 2010?
The Olympic Games are not the only thing that counts for me; there are many other more important things. I’ll begin to think about it three or four months before the event but for the moment it’s a long way off and it’s not my soul objective. Now that Skier-X is part of the Olympic Games, I’ll have to make sacrifices and respect the limits if I want to have a chance to win. If I have to change the way I think or the way I do things, then the Olympic Games won’t be for me. But, if I can do things the way I’m used to, the Olympic Games may very well happen.
What’s your vision of the X-Games as the most titled athlete of this major
Skier-X competition?
I don’t know, maybe I like the atmosphere around the races… you have to be there to feel it. I like the X-Games because even if the run is flat, the jumps and turns are rough unlike all the FIS runs. Actually, thinking thought about it, I’m only motivated in competitions where you’ve got to have guts. I think this might be my problem because if I was capable of being motivated even on bad runs, I could be great. But it doesn’t work like that for me. Looking quickly at my past, I see that all the races where the spirit was truly Skier-X, I almost always brought home a little something or took a podium. My team manager will tell you; we inspect a run and already know whether I can win or not.
How have you been able to remain among the best Skier-X specialists for more than eight years?
I don’t know. Maybe I ski with a different perspective. Everyone comes from Alpine skiing, myself included, but I’ve moved on to freeride and do it assiduously with much pleasure. Maybe that is part of the answer, to practice skiing in all its forms. Of course, at my level I have as much fun in freestyle, rails and jumps, but the most important thing is to have fun. When I entertain myself on the boards, I’m not good at anything else. Just having fun isn’t easy, so you can imagine!