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Alexis Pinturault will find it 'tough' to win gold at Alpine Skiing World Championships, says Gauthier de Tessieres
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Published 04/02/2023 at 13:44 GMT
The Alpine Skiing World Championships run from February 6-19 in Courchevel and Meribel and will see the world’s top Alpine talent battle it out on French territory for the first time since the 2009 Championships in Val d’Isere. On the men's side Alexis Pinturault is one of the frontrunners to pick up medals at the Championships, but Gauthier de Tessieres thinks he will struggle to win gold.
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Eurosport Alpine skiing expert and World Championship silver medallist Gauthier de Tessieres believes Alexis Pinturault will struggle to win gold on home snow.
Pinturault, who is from Courchevel which is one of the two locations where this year's Championships will take place, won the 2021 overall World Cup title.
However the Frenchman has been in indifferent form since and De Tessieres thinks he will have a tough time taking first place against competition such as Switzerland's Marco Odermatt and Norway's Aleksander Aamodt Kilde.
"Alexis Pinturault, it's tough to talk about him," he said.
"He’s pretty good on four discipline this year, but he's not the best one. I think it's a big advantage for him, you know that he grew up there. He is the real local one.
"He knows the hill perfectly, he's one of the favourites for GS, for Alpine combined for sure. Maybe in super-G.
"I think he can get some medals but it will be tough for him to win the gold.
"All the French team weighed so much on Alexis. And for sure the organisation want Alexis to win a medal as this World Championship is for him.
"So of course he's one of the big favourites."
Kilde is expected to have an epic battle with Odermatt as they both seek their first world championship medals.
Kilde is one of the favourites in downhill and a frontrunner in the super-G. De Tessieres believes Kilde's desire to win in any discipline he competes in will see him enjoy immense success at the World Championships.
He said: "It's funny, I talk a lot with Alexsander about this medal you know. He has so much ambition. He won the gold. He wants medals.
"It's a tradition for Norwegians to get medals, for Olympics, for World Championship and Kilde is very, very ambitious.
"For Courchevel, he wants the gold in downhill he wants the gold in super-G and so I think he is one of the big favourites for downhill and super-G."
Alongside Kilde, De Tessieres thinks a Norwegian team filled with young stars will enhance the overall competition.
"I really love this team," he said.
"They are in such great spirits and they love to get metal so [Lucas] Braathen, [Henrik] Kristoffersen, [Atle Lie] McGrath, I'm sure they will be the biggest actors of this World Championship and they're very ambitious.
"And you know that the two young McGrath and Braathen, they don't have medals. And now they know they can get them.
"For example, McGrath and Braathen, they told me they want to get four medals.
"So they are very ambitious and I love it. It's very important that all the Norwegian team will be there in great shape, and we will have a great show because of them."
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Stream the 2023 Alpine Skiing World Championships from February 6-19 live on discovery+ and eurosport.co.uk.
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