Faivre Eyes Improvement In Olympic Season

French ski racing maestro Mathieu Faivre has been on a steady ascension through the ranks of World Cup GS ever since making a splash with a World Junior Championship title back in 2010. In fact, the 25-year-old Frenchman managed a top-15 finish in his first World Cup start, finishing in 15th place in the 2010 World Cup Finals GS in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Seven seasons later, Faivre finally tasted the top step of the podium on Dec. 4, 2016, when he took the win on home soil in Val d’Isere, besting the likes of superstars Alexis Pinturault and Marcel Hirscher in the process.

“It was an unbelievable day,” Faivre says in a recent interview with FIS. “Everything worked out perfectly and I was able to ski at my best. It was a great satisfaction to realize that when I set things up correctly over two runs, I am in the position to win a race. As a matter of fact, winning in front of a French crowd was special, especially as Val d’Isere is one of my favorite venues. With four Frenchmen in the five top positions, I felt very proud to offer this performance to the French ski fans.”

Image Credit: Alain Grosclaude/Agence Zoom

Faivre carried that momentum into the remainder of the season to finish inside of the top 10 in all but one of the remaining GS races, including a runner-up finish on the legendary Gran Risa in Alta Badia, Italy, and a third place to close out the year at Finals in Aspen, Colo. When the books closed on the 2016-17 World Cup season, Faivre saw himself finish second in the GS standings behind GS, slalom, and overall winner Hirscher.

Although born closer to the pristine beaches of the Mediterranean in Nice than the snow-covered French Alps, Faivre developed a love for skiing at an early age. He spent his formative years in the French mountain town of Isola 2000, located just across the Italian border about an hour-and-a-half drive north from his birthplace.

“As most ski resort kids do, I started skiing as soon as I was able to walk, with my dad and my granddad,” he shares. “Then, I followed the normal (ski school) curriculum, going through all the usual steps and categories. When I was 15, I had to leave Isola 2000 and my family to settle down in Savoy and benefit from the best possible training conditions. This is when I joined the Club des Sports de la Plagne for my first FIS year. Good results in this first season allowed me to directly integrate the French national team and become a professional skier.”

Despite taking his maiden World Cup win, Faivre says that the highlight of his season was finishing runner-up in the GS standings, indicating a year’s worth of fast, strong skiing.

“Yes, I am very happy I was able to win in Val d’Isère, but I’m even more proud that I was able to be constant throughout the season and finish second of the season standings. Consistency is something I give a lot of importance to and definitely something I am looking for. To have reached that goal is fantastic and a great satisfaction.”

The upcoming Olympic season provides more opportunities for Faivre to bolster his resume, although he admits that Olympic hardware isn’t his sole motivation heading into the approaching season.

“My goal is to keep progressing, as I did in the last seasons,” he says. “I don’t plan to reach my peak performance in February for the Olympics, but I want to be competitive and in a consistent good shape over the whole season.”

Image Credit: Francis Bompard/Agence Zoom

Faivre will have his work cut out for him if he is to challenge the likes of Hirscher, his teammate Pinturault, and American Ted Ligety for GS dominance, especially given the overall depth of the men’s field at the moment. Ten different athletes earned GS podiums last season, and the men’s tour is set to once again change the GS ski dimensions for 2017-18.

Faivre has a second medal opportunity in sight for PyeongChang, as the alpine team event will make its Olympic debut – an event in which Faivre and his French teammates are reigning World Champions.

So, just how does Faivre plan on preparing for his lofty 2018 goals? After some well-earned days on the beach, he is eager to hit the gym this summer and get back on skis once his conditioning is in place for another successful season on the World Cup.

“We have an important preparation phase with dryland training in June, so the skis are stored until mid-July,” he says. “I just enjoyed very nice holidays at the beach, so the motivation is there, but for sure after four or five weeks, I will be happy to go back on my skis.”