Empowering Human Performance: Clément Noël

Some disciplines are born horizontal, made of flowing and breathing, rising and falling, in an almost orchestral process that has to get wind and strings, percussion and brass to coexist. Slalom is not one of these. Because slalom is a crevice in the mountain, a vertiginous dance towards the abyss, one built with the patience of a medieval scribe, training session after training session, whether or not there is any snow. A narrow place by definition, unstable by nature, where precision is worth more than strength, but where without strength you still can’t survive all the energy that pulls you down the hill. It is a subtle, nervous place, a breath that allows no hesitations, within which, for years, the long shadow of a one-of-a-kind athlete has been cast, seemingly designed to defy logic, to fail from the outset: Clément Noël.

His story is not the classic narrative of someone predestined, but the tale of a boy who grew up on the gentle slopes of eastern France; discreet mountains, like him, far from the glamorous hype of the big alpine destinations. It was there that a tall boy learned to converse with the material in an almost introspective way. Nothing epic, no legend, only maturing silence, calm, clay that would take shape.

When the grown-up world noticed him, barely 15 years old, he was still an unfinished project, a coin toss. The comfortable one metre ninety centimetres that separates him from the ice he treads on is not just an oddity, it is an obstacle, at least according to the history books. But his uniqueness finds comfort in disproportion. Where others slip off track, he finds semi-permanent centres of gravity, in a heliocentric system, where he, suddenly, is the sun. His levers, which were once too long, become elastic. His extreme verticality is transformed into technical credit. His technique, seemingly too broad to be successful, redefines the essential.

His entry into the White Circus happens without a fuss, but not without a plan. It takes a few months for him to score his first points. Two seasons to get on the podium. And then, two radiant victories in two sacred temples: Wengen and Kitzbühel. Noël reveals himself to the eyes of the world; not as an acrobat, but an interpreter. Not a tightrope walker, but a craftsman of the gradient. His slalom is a calligraphy. It doesn’t scream, it doesn’t tear, it doesn’t burn up the track; it deciphers it. It is a language made up of micro-angles, infinitesimal pressure, a centre of gravity that changes position like a trickle of water on a sheet of ice. Sometimes he looks like a reed, bent by the wind; other times a sinuous heron; he bends but he does not break.

A style that finds its final form, for all to see and forever, at Beijing 2022. Olympic gold settles on him with the naturalness of an investiture. Since then he has carried its weight and privilege, while world slalom changes its skin, becomes increasingly physical, more violent. Present and disciplined; he does not survive the metamorphosis, he guides it. Strength sessions measured to the millimetre carve what hours of cardio and mobility make ethereal, light in its driving power. A form of meditation applied to movement. The most difficult to track. The most fragile to sustain. The closest to the truth: his way of measuring the world.

Bar Speed Power

2.21 m/s

Explosive Leg Power

1265 W

Peak Speed Output

0.69 m/s

Optimal Power Load

78% 1RM

Strength Efficiency Rate (Right leg / Left leg)

194 kg / 196 kg

Clément Noël

Clément Noël works on the Technogym Skillmill, from the Skill line, ideal for building the aerobic base required to tackle the relentless verticals of the circuit’s slaloms. A tireless athlete, the Frenchman never takes shortcuts with his gym preparation, vital for sustaining the fast pace of the descents between the narrow poles; as well as elasticity and strength, this scenario requires extraordinary aerobic capacity and solid breathing power. Skillmill Technogym becomes a pillar of functional conditioning.