Double hit for the bump boss. At 24, the French Perrine Laffont has for the first time in her career achieved the double at the World Championships in Bakuriani, Georgia. The day after her coronation on the moguls in singles, she won the gold in parallel this Sunday morning. Less than 24 hours after her singles victory, the 24-year-old Pyrenean has thus managed to find the physical resources necessary to chain four passages over the bumps of the Georgian resort. And easily dominate the Finnish Riikka Voutilainen in the eighth, the British Makayla Gerken Schofield in the quarter and the Austrian Avital Carroll in the semi-finals.
In the final, she found the American Olympic vice-champion Jaelin Kauf, vice-world champion in singles the day before. The two skiers had already faced each other in February in Deer Valley in the United States in the World Cup and Laffont had then taken the best of his opponent. This Sunday, she again dominated Kauf to clinch gold. With five world titles to her credit, she becomes the most successful mogul skier in history ahead of Canadian Jennifer Heil and Norwegian Kari Traa, both gold four times.
“It’s so much work”
“I can’t believe it, doing the double at the World Championships is something you can dream of when you’re an athlete and a mogul skier. It’s awesome !”, commented Laffont after the final, a queen’s crown subtly placed on her protective helmet. “It’s hard to believe it, because it’s so much work. A big thank you to my team, my partners, and everyone who works with me. Without them I would not have made it. It’s crazy !“, she was ecstatic.
A year after her disappointing fourth place at the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, the 2018 Olympic moguls champion returns to the top, after several months of doubt following her failure in Beijing.
After a start to the season on the podium, but still around first place, she picked up her first victory of the season at Deer Valley, in parallel, and it was the click. She then chained another World Cup victory at Chiesa in Valmalenco in Italy, still in parallel and outclassed the competition on Saturday at Bakuriani in singles.