Daniel

Summary

Date of Birth 18.02.1993
Place of Birth Martigny, Valais, CH
Hometown Branche d'en Haut, CH
Hobbies Squash, Kitesurf, Music, Books
Music Pop, Rock
Height - Weight 187cm - 87kg
Favourite ski resort La Fouly, CH

Biography

Daniel, the middle member of a family of three, was born at the hospital in Martigny on Thursday, February 18, thus preventing his mother enjoying Carnival that year. Then he grew up quite normally for a few years though, already, he showed signs of a developing a strong character.

His schooling began in Ratamiaou in Somlaproz and continued at the primary school in Orsières. Then, after two years at the secondary school in Orsières where he was enrolled in the Sports & Studies programme, he went to the College of St. Maurice, graduating in June 2012

Like many young people in the region, Daniel was on skis at a young age. Already competitive, he wanted to keep up with his brother Alastair, two years his senior, and so quickly learned the basics of the sport.

After a few seasons of skiing with the family, he moved on to the Ski Club Champex-Ferret. His first ski race on the day of his fifth birthday, was The Erika Hess Open in La Fouly. Much to his dismay, he was disqualified - his parents, presuming too much of his abilities, had let him go down on his own, which he duly did, unfortunately ignoring all the poles placed here and there as he did not understand what they were for.

Trained by Raphaëlle Berclaz he took part in his first kids races without setting the skiing world on fire, but by the start of the 2004/5 season he'd been successful enough to get a place at the brand new Centre #9 run by Ski Valais. He made good progress under the discerning eye of trainer Philippe Bestak culminating in 2008 with a nice crop of titles: 3 times Swiss champion, a win and a silver medal at the Grand Prix Migros final and 2 British championship titles.

Until then Daniel had put on skis in winter and played football in summer. The transition to NLZ West as a junior required some adjustments: Daniel stopped football and started the process of becoming a Swiss citizen, a necessity if he wanted to continue to train with Swiss Ski. His trainer for his first season as a junior was Louis Borloz, next came Steve Locher and then Thierry Meynet. He made good progress under each of these coaches and after three years of hard work and abnegation, but also moments of success such as first place in a FIS race on La Face Bellevarde in Val d'Isère, he was rewarded with a place in the Swiss C Ski Team

Photo: Swiss Ski

The 2011-2012 season saw Daniel get a place with the Swiss Ski team where scored his first points in the European Cup and took part in his first World Cup race on the legendary Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel. Following this promising season, he was promoted to the Future WC3 group coached by Didier Plaschy. The next season didn't see any major breakthroughs but he consolidated his position and was moderately successful. Daniel took part in a few World Cup races, got his first top 10 in the European Cup and scored quite a few FIS wins. At the end of the season he was promoted to the WC3 group where he met up with his former coach, Steve Locher, again. The 2013-2014 season was another step forward. Among Daniel's excellent results were his first World Cup points in Bormio and a 7th place in the slalom in Kitzbühel, not to mention a place in the Swiss team at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and coming 1st overall in the European Cup slalom standings. He finished the season as equal 30th best slalom skier in the World Cup rankings.

When Steve Locher left Swiss Ski, his assistant Matteo Joris took over. Daniel has steadily improved, moving up the rankings from 16th, 13th, 11th and then, in 2017-18, 5th. This was also the season in which he got his first podium finishing with back to back 3rd places in Kitzbühel and Schladming. His first outright victory came in Madonna di Campiglio in the third race of the 2018-2019 season