Sylvain Dufour

Sylvain Dufour (born 19 November 1982 in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges) is a French alpine snowboarder.[1][2] He claimed two silver medals each in giant slalom and slalom at the 2009 FIS Snowboarding World Championships in Gangwon, South Korea, and later represented his nation France in two editions of the Olympic Games (2010 and 2014).[3] Dufour currently trains for Ski Club Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines under his personal coach and mentor Christophe Guinamard.[4][5]

Sylvain Dufour
Personal information
Full nameSylvain Dufour
Nickname(s)Popeye[1]
Nationality France
Born (1982-11-19) 19 November 1982
Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France
Height1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight82 kg (181 lb)
Sport
SportSnowboarding
Event(s)Alpine
ClubSC Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines[1]
Coached byChristophe Guinamard[1]
Medal record
Men's snowboarding
Representing  France
World Championships
2009 Gangwon Giant slalom
2009 Gangwon Slalom

Dufour reached international headlines to his sporting career, when he first won two silver medals each behind Canada's Jasey-Jay Anderson in the men's giant slalom and Austria's Benjamin Karl in the men's slalom at the 2009 FIS Snowboarding World Championships, earning him a ticket for the French team to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.[3][6]

In his official Olympic debut, Dufour recorded a second-fastest time of 1:16.79 in the seeding round of the men's giant slalom, but shortened his chances of adding another career medal after finishing behind Slovenia's Rok Flander in a first knockout round by 1.65 seconds.[7]

At the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Dufour qualified as a lone French athlete for two alpine snowboarding events (including the first ever men's parallel slalom) by finishing first from the FIS World Cup series in Carezza, Italy and in Sudelfeld, Germany.[8][9] In the men's giant slalom, Dufour could not endure his surprising setback from Vancouver after delivering a fifteenth-fastest total time of 1:39.76 in the seeding run and eventually, finishing beyond a five-second margin behind US-born Russian snowboarder Vic Wild in the first round.[10] Three days later, in the men's slalom, Dufour grabbed a tenth-seeded time of 59.43 to compete against Switzerland's Nevin Galmarini, who won the silver in giant slalom earlier, in the first round, but he was later disqualified after missing a gate each in both blue and red course races.[11][12]

Dufour competed in the Parallel giant slalom with Nathalie Desmares as a partner in 2018.[13]

References
  1. "Sylvain Dufour". Sochi 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Sylvain Dufour". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  3. "Fraenzi Maegert-Kohli and Benjamin Karl win snowboard parallel slalom". New York Times. 21 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  4. "Équipe de France – Sylvain Dufour" (in French). French Olympic Committee. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  5. Prato, Benoît (23 February 2014). "Snowboard: Sylvain Dufour passe à côté de ses Jeux" [Snowboarding: Sylvain Dufour misses its Games] (in French). L'Alsace-Le Pays. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  6. "Plus d'argent pour Dufour" [More silver for Dufour] (in French). 20 minutes (France). 22 January 2009. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  7. "Men's Parallel Giant Slalom Medal Round". Vancouver 2010. NBC Olympics. Archived from the original on 2014-02-28. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  8. "Calve and Dufour win first Parallel Slalom". International Ski Federation. 14 December 2013. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  9. "La marseillaise pour Sylvain Dufour qui remporte le Slalom parallèle" [Sylvain Dufour won the parallel slalom for La Marseillaise] (in French). French Ski Federation. 14 December 2013. Archived from the original on 15 March 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  10. "Men's Parallel Giant Slalom Round of 16 Finals". Sochi 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  11. "Men's Parallel Slalom Round of 16 Finals". Sochi 2014. Retrieved 14 March 2014.
  12. "Sotchi 2014: Sylvain Dufour éliminé en 8e de finale du Snowboard Slalom parallèle" [Sochi 2014: Sylvain Dufour eliminated in 8th finals of the Snowboard Parallel Slalom] (in French). L'Express. 22 February 2014. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  13. "Nathalie Desmares | FFS". www.ffs.fr (in French). Retrieved 2018-09-03.
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