Frenchman Simon Billy, 31, set the world ski speed record at 255.5 km/h on Wednesday in Vars (Hautes-Alpes), we learned from the organizers.
“I made the course of my life, at first I was calm and self-confident. This record today at home in Vars is a collective victory. Kid, I’ve seen all the records here (…) Today a childhood dream is coming true,” said Simon Billy happily.
Le Varsin belongs to a famous family of speed skiers and has been training since he was a child on the Chabrières slope, the only one in the world approved for speed records.
His father Philippe Billy set the world record in Vars in 1997 with a top speed of 243.902 km/h. Simon Billy stole the world record from Italian Ivan Origone, which was smashed at 254.958 km/h in 2016.
With an estimated average speed over 100 m of 255 km/h, Simon Billy won his second world title in speed skiing at the 2023 Speed Masters.
Billy began his descent from the station’s summit at 2,715m on a 495m descent with a maximum gradient of 98% – flirting with the vertical.
Speed skiers reach 200 km/h in less than 6 seconds. The discipline demonstrated at the 1992 Olympic Games in Albertville (France) did not pass the seal of approval.