Best phase of his career Nef shines in the slalom month of January: "I asked myself the right questions"

SDA

28.1.2025 - 05:00

Geneva slalom specialist Tanguy Nef is delighted with 4th place in Wengen.
Geneva slalom specialist Tanguy Nef is delighted with 4th place in Wengen.
Picture: Keystone

Tanguy Nef is currently experiencing the best phase of his career. The 28-year-old from Geneva is finishing in the top 10 in slalom after slalom and is one of the medal contenders at the World Championships in Saalbach.

Keystone-SDA

"Sometimes things happen quickly in the slalom." Tanguy Nef stands in the Kitzbühel finish area with this statement. Seventh place on the Ganslern slope was synonymous with his fourth top 8 finish of the season, the third in a row after those in Adelboden and Wengen. The Frenchman, who lived in Basel until the age of six, was also the best-placed Swiss skier three times in a row. Nef is currently in a state of flow.

How diametrically different his emotional state was just a short time ago, when he was eliminated six times in nine slaloms in the 2022/23 season and failed to qualify for the final twice. The only highlight of the winter? 19th place in Garmisch.

The reasons for the upswing

So the question for Tanguy Nef: What is the key to the transformation from an insecure and disproportionately often eliminated back-up skier to a confident "zig-zag artist" who can keep up with the best in the field race after race between the poles? "On the one hand, you have to learn from your mistakes," says Nef and says that "skiing is a complex subject. But I think I asked myself the right questions and worked with good coaches. As a result, I made progress step by step."

And on the other hand? "A change of equipment (before the 2023/24 season - editor's note)." Last winter was a transitional season in which he could not yet hope for top results. "It was more about climbing back up the slalom hierarchy and gaining as much confidence as possible in every race and in different snow conditions." With just four more zeros, but already five races in the points, Nef has clearly stabilized.

The next step in summer 2024

Last summer, Nef felt ready to take the next step forward. "I gave my all in every training session to get the best out of it. It went really well. I was able to gain the confidence I needed to start the season well." Whereby good is more of an understatement, as he came fifth in the slalom opener in Levi in mid-November, his best result in the World Cup to date.

This was followed by a "rather difficult phase up until Christmas, but I was still in the top 20. I knew then that I could aim for the top ten or even the top five on good days." No sooner said than done. On the Chuenisbärgli, in eighth place, he took further courage to be able to fully attack in Wengen. There he set a new career best with fourth place. He missed his first podium place by just four hundredths.

Although the surface was completely different a week later in Kitzbühel, Nef was able to adapt well to the changed conditions. "Between Wengen and Kitzbühel, we trained for a few days in Hinterreit on similarly extreme snow. I got back to my good feeling there." The fact that the change of equipment in spring 2023 was a good decision was particularly evident on the Ganslern slope, where six other skiers in addition to Nef were in the top 10 on Atomic skis.

At the same time, the last slalom so far showed him "that sometimes a few details are still missing, especially in the second run". In Kitzbühel, the man from Geneva would have liked "a little more courage" in the final. But Nef is convinced that this will certainly be more present in the future thanks to the positive performances.

World Championship slalom already on the radar

For Schladming, which is significantly higher than Kitzbühel, Nef is hoping for "better snow" again. In addition, he considers the Planai to be easier in terms of topography than the slopes in Kitzbühel or Wengen. The 28-year-old wants to show "two more great runs" on Wednesday in order to end the slalom month of January, which has been so successful for him this year, "in the best possible manner".



A nice side effect of another top result would probably also be a push into the top 15 of the world rankings. Which would be an advantage, especially in view of the race after next - the World Championship slalom on February 16. "Ideally, I would then have the chance to start with number eight in Saalbach-Hinterglemm. With this starting position, my chances of a medal would be intact," says the man from Geneva, who was only just in the top 30 of the world rankings at the start of the winter and most recently started the race in Kitzbühel with number 16.

With a medal at the season's highlight, Nef would prove even more how fast things can sometimes go in the slalom.

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