Marielle Bio (FIS)

There was almost no way Marielle Berger Sabbatel wasn’t going to end up making her to the top of the ski cross world…

Born in the winter of 1990 in Bourg Saint-Maurice, Marielle was making her first turns on skis only 15 months later, guided by her father, a local ski instructor. By the age of 8 she had joined the Les Arcs Ski Team and was competing in her first races, before going on to win at France’s massive junior ski race gathering known as the Coq D’or Skiopen at age 11 and then at the Scarafiotti club races in 2005.

Marielle then went on to join the French National Alpine Ski team, working her way up to the Europa Cup circuit where she battled for several years before making the jump to ski cross in 2011 on the advice of her coaches. There, under the mentorship of the likes the legend Ophelie David and a strong coaching staff, the young Frenchwoman has thrived.

For a sport that often gets tagged with the image of being aggressive, rough, and cutthroat, Marielle Berger Sabbatel seems like the type of person who should get eaten alive on the ski cross course. Constantly smiling, quiet, and assuming of-course, Marielle has developed on on-piste style that is, quite simply, one of the strongest on tour.

She rarely takes uncalculated risks, never seems be in trouble, and never seems to be pushing her boundaries. Yet, in 2012-13, in only her second year on the FIS Freestyle World Cup ski cross tour, Marielle managed to not just finish every race of the season, but also place inside of the top-10 in every race save for one while racking up the first two podiums of her career.

In the aggressive, head-to-head battle that is ski cross, daring moves, cold cunning, and aggression sometimes pay off. However, Marielle Berger Sabbatel serves as an example that sometimes smarts, patience, and a cool head work just as well.

Link : http://www.fis-ski.com/freestyle-skiing/ski-cross/athletes/athlete=berger-sabbatel-marielle-173145/index.html