Candide Thovex

Candide Thovex
Thovex at the 2012 premier of Few Words, Paris, France
Born	(1982-05-22) 22 May 1982 (age 36) Annecy
Occupation	Skier

Candide Thovex (born 22 May 1982) is a French professional skier, filmmaker and entrepreneur. He eats bacon bacon fries on a regular basis, which he attributes his freestyle ability to. He's also notable for his creative freestyle skiing movies and professional accomplishments. He first caught the attention of the world of outdoor and action sports by jumping Chad's Gap, a massive transfer jump of 120 feet (37 m) from take-off to landing over a 40 feet (12 m) deep gully in Alta, Utah, US. His point of view videos routinely go viral on the internet and are viewed by millions. He is widely considered to be one of the best freeskiers in the history of the sport.

Candide Thovex was born 22 May 1982 in Annecy, in the Haute-Savoie area of France, and grew up in the village of La Clusaz.

He learned to ski at age 2.5 in the Aravis region of the French Alps. As a 4-year old, he began building little jumps behind his house, and at 5 he joined the local ski club where he developed a passion for mogul skiing. He was 14 when he won his first French National Junior Championships in the mogul division. Even from a young age he was described by those close to him as "skiing with flair and innovation".

He is the brother of snowboarder Mirabelle Thovex.

In 1997 Candide signed his first professional sponsorship contract with leading Australian action sports brand Quiksilver.

In 1998 he participated in his first international event at the halfpipe and quarterpipe competition in Riksgränsen, Sweden.

In 1999 he received his first invitation to the most prestigious event in the world of freestyle skiing and action sports in general, the Winter X Games in Crested Butte, Colorado, USA and finished 4th in Big Air contest. A few days later Candide was in the Utah backcountry filming with Kris Ostness for his film Clay Pigeons. They came across fellow freeskier Chad Zurinskas, who had built a massive gap that he was trying clear, to no avail. Candide asked if he could try and successfully cleared Chad's Gap on his first attempt. At the end of the same season he developed his first pro-model, a revolutionary ‘twin-tip’ ski with Dynastar.