DAY #3 SPORTS FOCUS: Forty-one-year-old Frenchman Clarey becomes oldest alpine skier to race to an Olympic podium

Switzerland’s Beat Feuz raced to coveted Olympic downhill gold, however, it was 41-year-old French veteran Johan Clarey who stole the show.

Clarey defied gravity, and age, to become alpine skiing’s oldest Olympic medalist.

Kicking out of the start 19th, Clarey charged down the mountain, taking risk, aptly navigated ‘the Rock’ course’s multiple jumps and blind turns, appearing en route to overtake Feuz, who sat at the bottom in the lead. After clocking four faster intermediate times, Clarey lost a bit of time on the lower, Canyon section, of the course. He crossed the line just 0.10 seconds off Feuz winning time of 1:42.69.

Still, the veteran Frenchman was ecstatic with his performance – he banged on his skis as excited as a rock star guitarist performing on stage. The music was sweet to everyone’s ears.

“With all the delays and the conditions and everything that is around the downhill slope, I think to have some experience was OK today – you can see it on the podium,” Clarey said, about his silver medal performance coming in a race which had been postponed from Sunday due to precarious winds.

“I kept calm – of course my fourth Olympics Olympic Games was an advantage for me today, and I’m just happy with the way I handled it.”

Clarey has aged like a fine French Bordeaux.

The friendly Frenchman also finished second in the famed Hahnenkamm Downhill in Kitzbuehel, Austria, last month, to also become the oldest skier on a World Cup podium.

He elaborated upon his well-executed and thrilling run on the two-mile, unknown and untested, Chinese downhill course, realizing that he had nothing to lose.

“I was pushing, pushing, taking a lot of risk, I knew I only had one chance left in my career to get a medal in the Olympics,” said Clarey, from Annecy near the French Alps. “Today, I was fast. Not enough for the gold, but silver is my happiness.”

Clarey first competed on the World Cup circuit back in November 2003. He has started in 221 World Cup races and six more at four Olympic Games – his showing in Monday’s race was his best. His previous top finish was 18th, four years ago in PyeongChang.

Clarey became the first Frenchman to land on an Olympic downhill podium since Antoine Deneriaz won gold in Turin 2006 and he adds his name to an esteemed list of French ski racers that have won Olympic downhill medals including Jean-Claude Killy, Jean Vuarnet (of sunglasses fame), Jean-Luc Cretier, Henry Oreiller and Franck Piccard.

Clarey’s much younger French teammate Matthieu Bailet, who is 16 years younger, touched upon the elder racer’s relationship with the team.

“He’s like our Dad, we couldn’t be happier,” said Bailet, who avoided a near crash to finish 27th, 2.54 seconds behind Clarey.

Feuz, who is far from flashy, but consistently job done time-and time-again, like clockwork, sped to his first Olympic medal, joining fellow Swiss greats Didier Defago, Pirmin Zurbriggen, and Bernhard Russi, the designer of the new Chinese course, – as Olympic downhill champions.

Matthias Mayer, the 2014 Olympic downhill champion seemed satisfied with bronze, despite coming just 0.16 seconds short of becoming the first ski racer to win two downhill gold medals.

Feuz (34), Clarey (41) and Mayer (31) have an combined age of 106, the highest total ever on Olympic alpine skiing podium, proving that physically demanding, knee-rattling and dangerous downhill racing – in which Clarey clocked a speed of 110 km/h and flew 40 meters off the course’s feared Sugar jump – is not just a young man’s game.

Prior to Clarey’s stellar performance in Yanqing, China on Monday, American superstar Bode Miller previously had been the oldest Olympic alpine skiing medalist, having attained a bronze at Sochi 2014 super-G, at age 36.

Excluding bobsleigh and curling (sorry, curling fans it’s easer to excel at an older age as a skip), Clarey becomes just the 17th winter sports athlete to nab an Olympic medal at age 40 or over, according to our friends at Olympedia.

Clarey joins Norwegian biathlon legend Ole Einar Bjørndalen legend, the most decorated Winter Olympian of all-time, hockey greats Chris Chelios from the U.S. and Dominik Hasek from the Czech Republic, and Italian luge legend Armin Zoeggeler, among others, as 40-plus winter athletes to win an Olympic medal.

No rest for Clarey and those younger guys as they are back on the Xiaohaituo mountain to contest the men’s super-G on Tuesday.

Hopefully, the Frenchman will savor one well-deserved glass of wine tonight.

Cancer survivor wins men’s slopestyle gold, tough start for Shiffrin

Canadian Max Parrot – a cancer survivor – soared to a gold medal in the men’s slopestyle competition, ahead of defending Olympic champion Red Gerard of the U.S., in Monday’s event.

“It really just shows anything is possible,” Parrot said, after winning Canada’s first gold medal of Beijing 2022 “Today, I’m an Olympic gold medalist and I had the biggest run of my life.”

Parrot’s Canadian teammate Mark McMorris, who has overcome severe injuries in his career, captured his third consecutive slopestyle bronze medal.

Mikaela Shiffrin’s quest for five Olympic medals ended abruptly, skiing off course after just five or six gates, having uncharacteristically lost her edge in the first run of women’s giant slalom.

“Could blame it on a lot of things and we’ll analyze it till the cows come home, but not today,” Shiffrin said of the costly mistake. “Moving focus to slalom now.”

The American star is back at it in the women’s slalom on Wednesday, still seeking her third career Olympic gold medal.

From snow to ice, the Russian Olympic Committee won team figure skating gold led by 15-year-old Kamila Valieva was best in both the long and short programs in women’s single skating to contribute to ROC’s 74 point total, a victory over the United States, with 65 points, for silver.

Italian short track speed skater Arianna Fontana won 500-meter gold, her ninth Olympic medal in four Games. Dutch veteran Ireen Wurst won 1500-meter gold on the bigger track.

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