With his Olympic victory in the downhill at the 1998 Olympic Games in Nagano, he joins the long list of surprise winners in this discipline. In the Ski World Cup , however, he could not win a race; he reached three times a second and twice a third place. From 1983 to 1993 Crétier was French champion six times (3 × combination, 2 × downhill and 1 × Super-G). In December 1998 Cretier announced his resignation after a serious fall on the World Cup downhill in Val Gardena .
France
