French skier Juliette Willmann has been on the podium twice on the Freeride World Tour and has had an intense season, qualifying for the final in Verbier and finishing fourth overall. Here is a look back at the four events in which the French skier took part.
After a seventh place overall last season, Juliette Willmann took fourth place in the world hierarchy this year. On the Freeride World Tour, the Frenchwoman finished at the foot of the podium, behind the Swiss world champion Elisabeth Gerritzen, the Norwegian Hedvig Wessel and the Polish Zuzanna Witych. In a season once again impacted by the epidemic and shortened to four rounds, including the final in Verbier, the Private Sport Shop ambassador got the year off to a perfect start on the Arcalis double stage in Andorra.
Juliette Willmann has always lived in a world where skis were omnipresent with her father being a coach and her mother a ski instructor. She signed her first podium on the Freeride World Tour in Andorra at the end of a clean and committed run (video below) and was only beaten by Hedvig Wessel during this inaugural stage.
A week later, on the second stage again at Arcalis, the skier from Barcelonette did it again, taking second place in a race won by the woman who was to be crowned world champion at the end of the season, Elisabeth Gerritzen. "The snow was demanding," she explained after her run. "Still, it wasn't easy to start in last place after watching all the other skiers go by from up there." Having left Andorra with the yellow jersey of discipline leader, the Frenchwoman thus fulfilled her first objective of the season: several podium finishes. She was then able to set her sights higher than simply qualifying for the final in Verbier (the top six finishers qualify for the final). But in the end, the title eluded her in Austria and Switzerland.
Held in mid-March, the Fieberbrunn event was decisive for Freeride World Tour riders in their bid to qualify for the Verbier Xtreme. While Juliette's goal of seeing Switzerland was achieved, her fifth-place finish in Austria left a bitter impression on her. "Bad ride, bad feeling...".
On the mythical Verbier eventThe former alpine skier (she competed in the discipline for 10 years) could still hope to win the world title. Having arrived in Verbier in second place overall, 2,000 points behind Hedvig Wessel, the Frenchwoman gave it her all in the final, with the aim of "not regretting a thing", as she explained a few days before taking on the famous Bec des Rosses. A face that Juliette respects more than anything else: "It's the Mecca of our discipline. It's a bit of a myth and a legend. When you find yourself having to ride here, you say to yourself: 'I'm going to ride the Verbier Xtreme! I just have to get used to it. It can get complicated if you let yourself get caught up in the stress of it all. There's an important psychological aspect to master, but I love this face."
If the Frenchwoman let go of the horses in the final, her risk taking did not pay off and a small mistake at the end of the run sent her down. She went down alone with difficulty to the finish area and her cry of pain once her run was over made us fear the worst about her injury. But the examinations at the hospital were finally reassuring. Nothing broken for Juliette who finishes the year in fourth place overall. She will be back on the 2022 Freeride World Tour.