Beijing 2022 Olympics – Moguls: Perrine Laffont, reigning Olympic champion, starts her competition this Thursday

Four years ago, a girl not even 20 springs landed in Pyeongchang to win gold and nothing else. The objective was achieved, the total happiness and the fame of Perrine Laffont made. Already multiple world medalist, she only confirmed her immense talent. An Olympiad has passed and Laffont has won a lot again. A world title and three general globes in particular. Not far from the peak of her art at the end of last season, the Olympic champion had a difficult start to the season and the pain of a fall in mid-December before seriously gaining momentum in January.

Starting her competition before the official launch of the Games (during the opening ceremony on Friday from 1 p.m.), Perrine Laffont knows. In 2018, the mogul qualifications took place on the morning of the opening ceremony. Qualified, she had been able to participate in the great launch mass. A huge smile crossed his face. This time, there will be no ceremony for her, the trip from Zhangjiakou, place of the mogul events, to Beijing being too long and therefore energy-intensive.

A fall and a concussion in mid-December

“We ended the month of January really well with Perrine Laffont, who took the top step of the podium twice. We are reassured. She shows that she is there, regular, that she can win“, confirmed Ludovic Didier, the coach of the French moguls teams, at the microphone of Eurosport. In Mont-Tremblant, on January 8, then in Deer Valley, the Mecca of moguls, on the 13th, it is indeed Laffont who triumphed A sigh of relief after a first part of the World Cup, if not worrying, at least complicated.

Three races, only one second place, Perrine Laffont’s month of December did not live up to her ambitions. Although she claims to want to break away from the pressure of the result, she affirms in the process to remain demanding. “At the start of the season, we wasted energy watching the others ski, watching the judges’ scores. We got a little lost in there“, recognizes Ludovic Didier. There was above all this terrible fall in Alpe d’Huez and the fear, for a second, that the Olympic dream would come to an end. The skier ultimately suffered “only” from a concussion, and three weeks later, she won the second race at Mont-Tremblant.

A track similar to the 2018 Olympics

“We had to get back to basics, focus on ourselves, on our performance, on pleasure. For me it was the most important thing, it’s something she managed to do in January. She really broke free“, tells us her trainer. For her part, the athlete prefers to remember that the level has increased in the World Cup and that, in fact, she too must progress and strive for perfection.

Since arriving in China, the defending champion has gotten to know the track. She described it for The Team : “The training went pretty well. I am adapting little by little because we have 4 days of training, which is a lot. The hardest part is adapting to the snow which is super abrasive, which changes the bearings on the skis. So little by little, I put myself in place on the track. It resembles the Pyeongchang Games. The bumps are not the same but the slope profile is about the same.” A good omen?