The day after her singles title, the French skier did it again on Sunday by winning gold in parallel. Sa 5e world crown at only 24 years old.
By QM with AFP
© Grégory YETCHMENIZA / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/LE DAUPHINE/MAXPPP
Published on
Subscriber-only audio playback
Un crazy weekend for Perrine Laffont. The French skier became for the fifth time in her career world champion in mogul skiing by winning Sunday February 26 in Bakuriani, Georgia, the title in parallel, the day after her coronation in singles.
Perrine Laffont achieves this double for the first time in her career, after winning world gold in parallel in 2017 and 2019 and in singles in 2021. With five planetary titles, she becomes at 24 the most skier on the moguls titled history ahead of Canadian Jennifer Heil and Norwegian Kari Traa, gold four times.
A Perrinne Laffont in great shape
Less than 24 hours after her coronation in singles, the 24-year-old Pyrenean found the physical resources necessary to chain four passages over the bumps of the Georgian station. She easily dominated Finland’s Riikka Voutilainen in the eighth, Britain’s Makayla Gerken Schofield in the quarter and Austria’s Avital Carroll in the semi-finals.
In the final, she met American Jaelin Kauf, world vice-champion in singles on Saturday, and Olympic vice-champion in singles in Zhangjiakou, China, a year ago. The two skiers had faced each other in February in Deer Valley, in the United States, in the World Cup and Laffont had taken the best. She once again dominated Kauf, to clinch the gold.
The bronze medal went to Carroll, completing an identical podium to Saturday’s single mogul event.
« Triple-double » pour Kingsbury
“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. “It’s hard to believe it, because it’s so much work. A big thank you to my team, my partners, and all those who work with me, without them, I would not have succeeded. It’s crazy ! “, she added.
A year after her disappointing fourth place at the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, the 2018 Olympic mogul champion (single) returns to the top, after several months of doubt during which her Chinese failure could have pushed her to end her career.
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, Italy, still on the sidelines, and outclassed the competition on Saturday at Bakuriani in singles.
If Laffont is on his first double at the Worlds, the Canadian Mikaël Kingsbury signed him a “triple-double”, since he doubled his gold medal on the single moguls on Saturday with a new title in parallel on Sunday, as he had already done so in 2019 and 2021. He edged out Olympic single mogul champion Walter Wallberg of Sweden, while bronze went to Australian Matt Graham, for the same podium as the singles event on Saturday , but in a different order.
Sixth the day before, the Frenchman Benjamin Cavet stopped in the quarter-finals on Sunday in doubles, beaten by Kingsbury.