Verdú graduated to the senior circuit, competing at three Olympic Winter Games: Sochi 2014, PyeongChang 2018, and Beijing 2022. However, the first two were very forgettable for the affable Andorran.
“In Sochi 2014 I suffered a serious fall and broke my leg; that was my first Olympic experience,” he remembers. “In the giant slalom, I broke my tibia, my fibula, and I couldn’t finish, obviously. I arrived in PyeongChang in 2018 unprepared, I would say, because I barely managed to qualify. I competed, but I wasn’t at a very high level.”
But the third time’s the charm, as they say.
“In Beijing I did quite well,” Verdú beams. “A great giant slalom, a great race. I am super proud of my second run, especially that I was third in the run and climbed back to ninth place (having been 13th after the first run).
“I think that gave me the wings to achieve what we have achieved lately.” Verdú is referring to his subsequent 2022/23 season, his first full year back at the World Cup level after his injuries (Verdú sat out the World Cup from 2018 to 2021), and then remarkably three top-10 finishes this year from four giant slalom World Cup races.
That run of form began with a third place in December in Val d’Isère, followed by a fifth place at Alta Badia, and most recently a seventh place in Schladming. No other Andorran skier has come close to achieving the heights Verdú has.
“In the first press conference of the season I said that my goal this season was to get a top five. Everyone looked at me a little strange,” Verdú recalls.
“First race, third. Second, fifth. Every day I get up, every day I give my 100 per cent for goals like these and I believe that dreaming big, aiming high, that shows the way and can help a lot.
“Getting the podium was incredible. I still get excited thinking about it,” he says. “Not having that (elite ski) culture that I told you about… when we were younger we did not have a reference on which to lean. We saw the Austrian, Swiss, and American megastars on TV, but for us it was very distant.
“You didn’t go to school and say ‘When I grow up I want to be a skier’. That is why today I also try to share so much with our young Andorrans, so that they can see that a normal boy, with the same skills, same coaches, same tracks, same resources has been able to reach the top.”