JEAN-PIERRE CLATOT / AFP
Frenchman Simon Billy broke the speed skiing record on Wednesday March 22 in the Hautes Alpes.
SKI – Twice as fast as a cheetah. Frenchman Simon Billy, 31, seized the world speed record at ski by reaching 255.5 km / h this Wednesday, March 22, in Vars, in the High mountainsannounced the organizers.
“I did the run of my life, I was calm and confident at the start. This record today at home in Vars is a collective victory. As a kid, I witnessed all the records here (…) Today, it’s a childhood dream come true”rejoiced the ski champ.
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From father to son
Le Varsin is part of a famous family of speed skiers and has been training since childhood on the Chabrières piste, the only one in the world approved for speed records.
His father Philippe Billy took over the world record in Vars in 1997 with a top speed of 243.902 km/h. Simon Billy stole the world record from the Italian Ivan Origone, flashed at 254.958 km / h in 2016.
With an average speed over 100 m estimated at 255 km/h, Simon Billy won his second title of speed skiing world champion at the same time, at the Speed Masters 2023. Billy started his descent at the top of the station at 2.715 m, on a track with a vertical drop of 495 m and a maximum slope of 98%, flirting with the vertical.
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Speed skiers can reach 200 km/h in less than 6 seconds. The discipline, demonstrated at the Olympic Games in Albertville (France) in 1992, has not passed the mark of approval.
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