The winner of the AIJS Prix Armando Trovati 2023 is known

After the awarding of the Skieur d’Or, Serge Lang Trophy 2023 (USA Mikaela Shiffrin wins it), the AIJS (Association International Ski Journalists) announced the winner of the Sixth edition of the AIJS Photo Ski Contest, known as the Prix Armando Trovati award.

Christian Bruna, Photojournalist for Austria at EPA-EFE beat out a strong field of entered photos and was named the winner of the AIJS Prix Armando Trovati 2023 for his photograph of Marco Odermatt (SUI) at the start of a training session for the men's Downhill race at the FIS Alpine Skiing World Cup in Kitzbühel, Austria, 17th January 2023.

Christian Bruna, Photojournalist in Austria for epa european pressphoto agency: "Exactly 15 years ago I had the idea of becoming a photojournalist and of course in Austria there is no way around alpine skiing. Back then, my gut feeling told me that the network of sports journalists and even more so of alpine skiing journalists is a tight community. Without much prior knowledge of sports journalism, I decided in mid-October 2008 that the World Cup opening in Soelden was the perfect place to build up my own network. This theory worked out perfectly, among others I met Reuters photographer Leonhard Foeger, who was my first boss a few months later and became my teacher, mentor and close friend. Since then Alpine Skiing races are a fixed part of my coverage for various clients. When I joined the epa staff team in 2015, it has become a obligatory part on my coverage schedule - and even more so a matter close to my heart - to cover World Cup races, World Championships and Winter Olympics. I'm still a long way from reaching my own standards. On the way there, I'm constantly trying to find unique perspectives on the people in front of my lens. This includes getting inspiration from experienced colleagues, not to copy them, but adapting photo ideas to my subjective view. That's also the case with this picture. I saw it for the first time in 2022. Of course, it was no longer possible to photograph it myself in the same year. I'm glad that I didn't forget about it over the summer break and in 2023, the first step after picking up the accreditation was to persuade the Kitzbuehel ski club to allow me to shoot this photo and the whole series as an agency photographer. This framing shows the conflict that must go through the athletes' minds when they stand up there at the start of the Streif. Forwards or backwards, this overcoming of catapulting themselves out of the starting house into 'One hell of a ride'."

12 other photographs were also selected for the annual exhibition that you can discover on Instagram.

AIJS thanked all the photographers who entered their pictures in this year’s contest and the panel of judges: AIJS President, M. Patrick Lang, FIS, Niklass Carlsson, Wire Agency Representative Eric Gaillard (Reuters), Alessandro and Marco Trovati and Aksel Lund Svindal.