Thomas Fanara: The Grand Slalom of Aging Gracefully on Skis Ah, Thomas Fanara, the quintessential embodiment of how to not just age like fine wine, but to do so while sliding down icy slopes at breakneck speeds on two precarious strips of fiberglass. The man transitioned from simply racing down hills to racing against the relentless onslaught of age itself, and ladies and gentlemen, let’s just say he does it with style! Born in Annecy—France’s own version of a postcard—on April 24, 1981, Fanara is the poster child for “old but not obsolete.” He mastered the giant slalom, which is basically what happens when you take a “straight down the mountain” approach and add a dozen back-and-forths just to mess with your sense of direction. His crowning achievement came in March 2016 at the giant slalom finals in St. Moritz, Switzerland, proving that while others were busy contemplating retirement, Fanara was too focused on making “aged athlete” look chic. By now, we all know that one can’t just glide through life—or down a mountain—unscathed by age. With each birthday, Thomas didn’t just gain another year; he collected an array of backstories, each one more ludicrous than the last. You see, it's as if he made a pact with the ski gods: “As long as I can still outrun the Grim Reaper on these slopes, please grant me the wisdom that only a skier—sorry, a ‘graceful elder’—can possess.” Can you imagine the existential crisis? “I’ve been racing since I was a teenager, and now, here I am, contemplating whether arthritis is an acceptable excuse for skipping giant slaloms. What’s next, bone density exercises followed by a five-course meal of kale?” But fear not! Fanara found the secret to aging gracefully on skis. As the oldest racer to reach a World Cup podium in giant slalom—yes, he literally set the bar for ‘senior citizen’ athletes everywhere—he turned what could have been a midlife crisis into an Olympic career. Imagine the conversations in the locker room: “How’s the new kid doing?” “He’s great! But you know what? I’ve been doing this longer than he’s been playing in the snow!” Of course, competing at three Winter Olympics and six World Championships must have been a blast—the kind of blast that only occurs when you’re wildly barreling down a slope, dodging flags like they’re obstacles in a scene from an action movie while warding off the slow march of time. “Sorry, Father Time, I’m busy winning!” And then, alas, like every fairytale ending that’s all about the glory, Fanara decided to retire from competition at the end of the 2018-19 season. Cue the dramatic music. Here’s a man who had defied both gravity and age, and suddenly, in the grand tradition of elder statesmen everywhere, he hung up his racing boots and took up, I don’t know, gardening or knitting—activities clearly more suited to an athlete of his “vintage.” So let’s raise our glasses to Thomas Fanara, the sensational skier who showed us exactly how aging gracefully can translate into carving down majestic mountains, leaving us all in his snow-dusted wake. Here’s to cracking your bones like you cracked records, and to swishing down those slopes as if they were just life’s silly little zigs and zags. And let’s be honest—if he’s not out there racing, he’s probably just plotting his next move at the annual “Whippersnapper vs. Old Pro” ski-off. Because once a competitor, always a competitor!