Joël Chenal

Joël Chenal
Joël Chenal in December 2006
nation	France
birthday	10th October 1973 (age 46)
place of birth	Moûtiers , France
size	177 cm
Weight	78 kg
Career
discipline	Giant slalom , slalom
society	Douanes La Rosière
status	resigned
End of career	March 15, 2009
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × 1 × 0 ×
winter Olympics silver Turin 2006 Giant slalom
Placements in the Alpine Ski World Cup
Individual World Cup debut November 19, 1995  Individual world cup victories 1  Overall World Cup 22. ( 1999/2000 )  Giant Slalom World Cup 5th (1999/2000)  Slalom World Cup 12. ( 1997/98 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Giant slalom 1 1 2

Joël Chenal (born October 10, 1973 in Moûtiers ) is a former French ski racer . He started in the disciplines of giant slalom and slalom and won the silver medal in giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics .

biography

Chenal gained his first international experience at the Junior World Championships in 1991 , where he only achieved 70th place in the downhill. A year later , the results were better, in both the giant slalom and the Super-G, he finished eleventh. In the European Cup in the 1996/97 season he won the slalom standings with his teammate Richard Gravier , and only one point ahead of Pierre Violon , also from France.

Chenal had his first start in the World Cup in November 1995. A year later, on December 22, 1996, he took his first World Cup points in the giant slalom in Adelboden with 22nd place. In the 1997/98 season he was already regularly placed among the top ten and ranked 12th in the slalom final. When he first participated in the Olympic Games in Nagano in 1998 , he reached eighth place in the slalom.

After the 1998/99 season was a little less successful, he achieved his first World Cup victory on December 19, 1999 in the giant slalom in Alta Badia. Two more podium places followed and at the end of the 1999/2000 season he finished fifth in the giant slalom ranking. In the slalom, however, he could no longer perform his previous performance and could hardly qualify for a second round in the next seasons. The results in the giant slalom were often not as good as before. From the 2001/02 season he therefore fully concentrated on the giant slalom and was able to achieve regular top 10 placements again. At the 2002 Winter Olympics , however, his performance was only enough for 21st place. At the beginning of the 2003/04 season , Chenal achieved a World Cup podium for the fourth time in Sölden. From 2002 to 2004 he was always among the top ten in the giant slalom rankings, and in the following years he remained among the top twenty giant slalom runners.

The Frenchman celebrated the greatest success of his career at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin . In the giant slalom, he surprisingly won the silver medal behind the Austrian Benjamin Raich . In the 2007/08 season he competed in slalom for the first time in five years. The only result was a twelfth place on January 6, 2008 in Adelboden. The day before he achieved tenth place in the giant slalom as the best result of the season.

In addition to his three Olympic appearances, Chenal also took part in five world championships from 1999 to 2007. His best result here is a ninth place in the giant slalom in St. Moritz in 2003 . Only in 2005 he couldn't finish his race.

On March 3, 2009, Chenal announced his retirement from active ski racing at the age of 35 after he had not qualified for the World Cup finals in Åre as 27th in the giant slalom classification . The best place in his last season was a 16th place in the giant slalom in Adelboden, Chenal had his last appearance in the World Cup on March 15, 2009 in the team competition.

successes

Olympic games

• Nagano 1998 : 8th slalom
• Salt Lake City 2002 : 21st giant slalom
• Turin 2006 : 2nd giant slalom

World championships

• Vail 1999 : 22nd giant slalom
• St. Anton 2001 : 11th giant slalom
• St. Moritz 2003 : 9th giant slalom
• Åre 2007 : 22nd giant slalom

World cup

• 1999/2000 season : 5th giant slalom ranking
• 4 podium places, including 1 victory:

date	place	country	discipline
December 19, 1999	Alta Badia	Italy	Giant slalom

European Cup

• Season 1996/97 : 4th overall ranking, 1st slalom ranking
• 5 podium places, including 1 victory:

date	place	country	discipline
December 8, 1998	Valloire	France	Giant slalom

Junior World Championships

• Geilo 1991 : 70th departure
• Maribor 1992 : 11th giant slalom, 11th Super-G, 14th slalom, 38th descent

More Achievements

• Double French champion in giant slalom in 1998 and 2006
• 7 victories in FIS races (from 1994/95)

Web links

• Joël Chenal in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Joël Chenal in the database of Ski-DB (English)
• Joël Chenal in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )