“It crossed my mind when I was in the hospital”, Alexis Pinturault considered ending his career after his fall in Wengen

Le champion français a douté. MAXPPP – JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BOTT

Le skieur français Alexis Pinturault a indiqué mercredi qu'il avait pensé à arrêter sa carrière après sa lourde chute lors du super-G de Wengen (Suisse) samedi, mais qu'il avait "envie de revenir".

Combined world champion last winter, Pinturault, 32, suffers from a rupture of the anterior cruciate ligaments in his left knee. He is due for surgery next week. Quitting, “it crossed my mind when I was in the hospital,” he admitted.

"I thought about it and even today it's not that simple, I don'I don'll be able to find my best level and be competitive. But the desire is there, to come back, I no longer think of stopping."

Pinturault, who has the best active record on the men's circuit with 34 World Cup successes, had started this season a shift towards speed for the end of his career, giving up slalom to discover downhill .

"Will I continue the descent? I'm not there yet", estimated the skier. "I may have to make choices to perform well, but I want to continue this quest." A father for a few days, he achieved his first Top 10 in downhill on Thursday, taking a good 9th place on the first descent on the program in Wengen.

The Swiss stage was marked by several serious falls – also costing the season to the Norwegian Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, N.2 for the last two winters – and athletes on the circuit criticized the calendar very responsible for the International Ski Federation, which exhaust organizations pushed to the limit. "We always have a lot of stages over the same period, it creates an overload and we athletes have always been against that", explained Pinturault.

Also read: Terrible fall for Alexis Pinturault: end of season for the Frenchman after a serious injury detected

"I don't know if my injury is linked to that (…) but when we finish the stage with the longest descent of the winter, we clearly want to throw the athletes in the hospital,” he regretted. The men's Alpine Skiing World Cup continues Friday in Kitzbühel, Austria, where two downhills and a slalom are on the program.