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Skiing’s unlikely hero, Cyprien Sarrazin, wins the renowned Kitzbuehel downhill
Cyprien Sarrazin, a French skier who made his World Cup downhill debut just 13 months ago at the age of 28, achieved a remarkable victory on Friday. He won the prestigious Hahnenkamm downhill race in Kitzbuehel, Austria, by a narrow margin of five hundredths of a second. The runner-up was Italian Florian Schieder, and the world champion Marco Odermatt of Switzerland secured the third position, trailing by 34 hundredths. American Ryan Cochran-Siegle narrowly missed the podium by one hundredth of a second.
Until last winter, Cyprien Sarrazin was primarily known as an injury-plagued giant slalom specialist, never finishing a season ranked higher than 15th in any discipline. He faced significant collarbone, spine, leg, and head injuries, as reported by French sources over the years.
In 2016, Sarrazin secured his first World Cup win in a parallel event, achieving this feat in just his seventh start. Unfortunately, he missed the entire 2017-18 World Cup season and participated in only three races in 2018-19 without qualifying for a second run in any of them.
In the previous season, he transitioned to speed races and demonstrated early promise by finishing sixth in his third career World Cup downhill in December 2022.
“We knew he had the inner strength for downhill,” commented Luc Alphand, the last Frenchman to win the Hahnenkamm in 1997, stating to ORF on Friday, “but then he was lost in GS, and now he is back to the roots.”
In January of the previous year, Sarrazin faced a downhill race crash that resulted in facial burns. However, he remarkably returned to finish 10th in Kitzbuehel just six days later.
Hailing from the Alps, Sarrazin has showcased exceptional performance this season with three victories (two downhill, one super-G) and four other top-four finishes. In nine World Cup speed races, he has consistently either placed in the top four or failed to finish, leaving no room for results in between.
Reflecting on his first downhill win in Bormio, Italy, on December 28, Sarrazin described it as the best day of his life. When asked about his second downhill victory, he remarked, “It sounds unreal.”
