Odermatt’s fiercest opponent is the wild Sarrazin: “It’s a matter of time before Cyprien ends up in the fence.”

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A steep ascent, violent falls and a sensational transformation – Cyprien Sarrazin’s biography is reminiscent of a script by a Hollywood director. Before this Alpine season, hardly anyone talked about the 29-year-old Frenchman.

But now Sarrazin is on everyone’s lips. The man with the telling nickname “Psycho” first caused a stir in the ski circus in December 2016 when he defeated our “Iceman” Carlo Janka in the final of the parallel slalom in Alta Badia.

After this sensational victory, Sarrazin did not enter the top ten for three years, until he caused another sensation in Alta Badia. In the giant slalom on the Gran Risa, the wild daredevil from southeastern France took second place behind Henrik Kristoffersen.

After that, little or nothing happened for Sarrazin for years. “The big problem with Cyprien during this period was that he hurt himself in every third race because he risked way too much,” recalls Angelo Maina from Ticino, Cyprien’s racing boss at Rossignol at the time.

From gigantic monster to downhill shooting star

Until 2021, the crash pilot only drove giant slalom until he took part in a Super-G for the first time in Garmisch. The result didn’t really surprise anyone: Sarrazin fell during his first speed race. That is why several trainers of the French team were very concerned when Sarrazin first attached the long downhill bars at the training camp in Chile at the end of summer 2022.

But the skepticism quickly turned into enthusiasm. The “crazy” literally surpassed his teammates in the downhill training, he was up to three and a half seconds faster than Johan Clarey (2022 Olympic silver winner) or Adrien Theaux (won World Cup bronze in Super-G in 2015)!

Sarrazin was able to implement his impressive training results in his third World Cup downhill – in Val Gardena he finished sixth with starting number 61!

And the 1.85 meter man has been really warm since this winter. At the descent in Bormio and at the Super-G in Wengen he relegated Marco Odermatt to second place. In the two Lauberhorn descents, only Odermatt was faster than Cyprien. Sarrazin attributes the fact that he was only eliminated in the Super-G in Bormio this winter “to the intensive work with the mental trainer”, he says.

For Feuz, Sarrazin is also hot in Kitzbühel

Before the start of the first Hahnenkamm descent, Olympic champion Beat Feuz is certain “that Odermatt and Sarrazin will also take the first two places on the Streif. I don’t see any other athlete at the moment who can keep up with them on descents as technically difficult as this one.”

Angelo Maina, on the other hand, is worried about his former protégé: “No one else takes more risks in the races than Cyprien. That’s why I’m afraid it’s only a matter of time before he ends up in the fence.”

During Wednesday’s training ride, Sarrazin was able to avoid a serious fall on the exit of the steep slope with an acrobatic rescue operation. And the day before, the warrior of the “Grand Nation” had to claim his guardian angel again. “Because the edge of my ski had just torn off, I was very scared because I didn’t know how to maintain my length during the traverse. Fortunately, everything went well.”

Source : Blick