– I have to boldly put it in perspective. I came from injury, and the goal was that giant slalom should be my best discipline, and then slalom should just be a “sub-discipline”. Maintaining that level and stable in the top 30 until next season is the goal, Braathen told NTB.

Super talent leads the slalom cup when there are two races remaining in the discipline on the World Cup program. But with 15th place at Flachau and 11th place at Courchevel, Braathen dropped to 5th in the cup.

Bad day

Henrik Kristofferson won the slalom cup ahead of Manuel Feller of Austria and Clément Noël of France. Atle pal Lie McGrath finished in 4th place.

– It was a crazy day in Courchevel, sort of. To find a restaurant and drink too much red wine and go to town and shop to drown out the sadness, Braathen said jokingly.

– When I woke up the next day, it was a ten hour trip to Austria to evaluate it, make new plans and work for a week to get the next season off to a great start, and then just be forgotten. “Because I’m not doing this for numbers on a piece of paper, I’m doing it because the ride is so cool, and then it’ll be fine,” he continued.

– Healthy like a horse

The 22-year-old is now facing a new season at the World Cup, where he is considered one of the world’s greatest talents. The first hurdle was the season opener at Sölden, where he picked up his first win of 2020.

– Healthy as a horse. Slightly down for last week’s count, only. Had a lot of physical tests, where one test went too far, so I just passed out and struggled a bit with my form after that. But other than that, it’s good now, said the Norwegian-Brazilian.

The Alpine World Cup kicks off in Austria on October 22 with a women’s giant slalom race. The men ran their first race of the season the following day.