As the most consistent slalom racer of the season, Loïc Meillard wears the red starting number in Adelboden. Yet the 28-year-old has had to put up with many a low blow in the recent past.
11.01.2025, 05:00
11.01.2025, 08:01
SDA
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- Loïc Meillard experienced material and injury problems last season, losing his self-confidence at times, but was able to find his way back through adjustments and hard work.
- Meillard sees difficult phases as instructive and emphasizes how important it is to find solutions to problems and emerge stronger.
- Following a ruptured disc, Meillard focuses on measured training, shows fighting spirit, but prioritizes reason over ambition in order to find a balance between performance and regeneration.
January 6, 2024: It gets loud again in the finish arena at the foot of the Chuenisbärgli on this foggy Saturday morning. Loïc Meillard is about to turn into the steep finish slope. The split times are red, but the French-Swiss racer is well on his way to finishing directly behind high-flyer Marco Odermatt. But then it happens. Again. Meillard hits a bump - and loses a ski. "I fell very far that day. All my hopes vanished in a fraction of a second," says Meillard in the SRF documentary series "The Ski Circus".
The missing connection to the ski
It was not the first time that Meillard had suffered this mishap. The binding, a prototype that the athlete developed together with equipment supplier Rossignol, had already failed in Sölden. "You lose your confidence in two races and need ten to regain it. That takes a lot of work and time. But you have to draw a line under it and look to the future."
A year has passed since the mishap in Adelboden. Confidence has long since returned and the material problems are a thing of the past. Adjustments and a step back have had the desired effect. "It generally helps if you know how to deal with your problems and find solutions," says Meillard, adding that it is in the less good moments that you learn the most about yourself.
Reason prevails over ambition
Meillard has to put what he has learned into practice sooner than he had hoped. Because at the beginning of this winter, his plans were also thrown overboard and he had to accept another setback. It happens again in Sölden. This time it wasn't his equipment that went on strike, but his body. Not in the race, but during the run-in. He takes a knock and feels such severe pain in his back that he has to miss the start.
Examinations reveal a tear in the shell of the intervertebral disc. Meillard has to dose his training, seeking a balance between competition mode and regeneration. He grits his teeth. Just like shortly before Christmas in the slalom in Alta Badia, where after an extremely strong second run, the joy of a new best time is less than the pain in his back.
As a result, Meillard skips the speed races in Bormio. A decision that is extremely difficult for the ambitious skier - after all, not only are valuable World Cup points at stake, but the "Stelvio" piste will also host the Olympic Games next year. Instead of trying to keep the gap to team-mate and rival Marco Odermatt in the overall World Cup within reasonable limits in the upper Valtellina, the man from Neuchâtel, who has lived in Valais for a long time, is treating himself to a few quiet days at home in Hérémence.
A change that pays off
"The break after Christmas has done me good," says Meillard. It's Thursday evening and he's sitting in the Swiss team hotel in Adelboden with his back straight as a die. Less than 24 hours earlier, he finished second on the podium in Madonna di Campiglio. For the fourth time in the fifth slalom of the season. Unprecedented consistency in the forest of poles, where even the smallest mistake can mean elimination.
"He was always fast and strong," says Matteo Joris, head slalom coach at Swiss-Ski. "But in slalom, a lot is also mental. Loïc was certainly helped by his first good result in Levi, when he started without any expectations or pressure." Joris himself also helped him.
Meillard changed his training group two years ago. He left Helmut Krug's group with Marco Odermatt and joined the slalom racers. Some saw this as an escape from the dominator of recent years, whom Meillard would love to stand up to in the overall World Cup. He himself disagrees: "I was the only one in the training group to ski the slalom and therefore always needed an extra sausage or two. That's not an easy situation." The change of training group helped him to improve his quality in the slalom.
On Saturday, Meillard will start as the leader in the discipline rankings. "Wearing the red number at home is really brilliant. I'm looking forward to the weekend," he says. On Sunday, the most difficult giant slalom of the whole winter is on the program at Chuenisbärgli. Two challenging races for a back that is still ailing. But the 28-year-old will also find a solution to this "problem". After all, the perfectionist still has a hole to make up.
