France’s Marie Bochet voted Sochi 2014’s Best Female Athlete

The 20-year-old won gold in four out of her five alpine skiing events at the Paralympic Winter Games. 17 Apr 2014
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Marie Bochet skiing past a gate

France's Marie Bochet competes in the women's super-G portion of the super-combined standing event on Day 7 of Sochi 2014.

ⒸGetty Images
By IPC

France aired 60 hours of live TV coverage from Sochi 2014, meaning Marie Bochet was being watched throughout the country for the first time.

Three weeks after winning the Laureus Award, French alpine skier Marie Bochet has been voted by the public as the IPC’s Best Female Athlete of the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games.

Just 20 years old at Sochi 2014, Bochet stood atop the podium after the downhill, giant slalom, super-combined and super-G events in the women’s standing class.

"I'm happy I had the chance to live all this,” Bochet told Paralympic.org during the final days of Sochi 2014.

“But I'm also happy that this has come to an end because it has been an exhausting experience. I'm happy for all the medals I have won."

Unlike in her Paralympic debut at the age of 15 at Vancouver 2010, Bochet said she was not in Sochi to socialise and just soak up the experience. She was there to win.

Her proudest moment of the Games came on the first day of competition when she put herself on the Paralympic podium for the first time in her career by winning the women’s downhill standing – one of the sport’s premiere events – in a time of 1:30.72 ahead of Russia’s Inga Medvedeva (1:32.19) and the USA’s Allison Jones (1:34.09).

France aired 60 hours of live TV coverage from Sochi 2014, meaning Bochet was being watched throughout the country for the first time.

Following the Games she has been a guest on the major “Le Grand Journal” TV programme on Canal+ and has made appearances on France 2 News, L’Equipe 21, LCI, iTélé and BFM TV. She has also been featured in top national newspapers such as L’Equipe, Le Monde, Le Parisien and Ouest France.

In lieu of the IPC Athlete of the Month award for March, the honour has been separated into three different categories – Best Male Athlete, Best Female Athlete and Best Team – based on results at Sochi 2014.

USA ice sledge hockey player Declan Farmer was voted the Best Male Athlete of Sochi 2014 earlier this month.

German alpine skier Anna Schaffelhuber, Dutch snowboarder Bibian Mentel-Spee and Russian Nordic skiers Elena Remizova and Alena Kaufman were also up for the Best Female Athlete accolade.

The nominations were compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) and International Federations (IFs).