A year after her failure at the Olympics, Perrine Laffont has become imperial again on the moguls, to get a fourth world title on Saturday in Bakuriani (Georgia) in singles, and will be the big favorite on Sunday in parallel. After winning gold in parallel moguls in 2017 and 2019, then gold in 2021 in single moguls, Perrine Laffont is on the top step of the podium for the fourth time in four different editions of the Freestyle Skiing World Championships. Better than French moguls legend Edgar Grospiron (winning gold in 1989, 1991 and 1995).
“It’s just amazing, because it’s been a tough day of competition. It’s a lot of stress to deal with, a lot of adrenaline. Even though I know what the big events are, it was still a goal to go look for a gold medal”, appreciated Perrine Laffont, after the obligations incumbent on the world champion.
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At 24, Perrine Laffont therefore resumed her domination of mogul skiing on Saturday, which she had somewhat left to her rivals last season, by flying over the two rounds of the final of the World Championships. She first made the best run on the first run with 87.60 points and nearly six points ahead of the competition. The counters were reset to zero in the second run, for which the reigning Olympic champion, the Australian Jakara Anthony did not qualify, part at fault and finally 17th and penultimate.
During this second run, Laffont once again made a perfect passage, almost identical to the first run, ahead of the American Jaelin Kauf, Olympic vice-champion twelve months ago, by nearly four points (87.40 against 83.56). Bronze went to Austrian Avital Carroll (80.19). The 2018 Olympic champion in Pyeongchang (South Korea) did not even need to take out her new jump, which she put in place at the end of the Olympic season. Without her two main rivals in the final (Anthony eliminated and the Japanese Anri Kawamura injured and absent in Bakuriani), the native of Lavelanet was able to settle for a jump, with less complicated jumps but technically very clean and extremely fast.
“I had a great score in the final, with a simpler run but very fast and free on skis. We said to ourselves that we were going to keep the strategy in the super final”, explained Laffont.
Towards a double?
This fourth gold medal at the Worlds “is a little more under the sign of resilience. There was a complicated Olympic season last year, where I asked myself a lot of questions, with a lot of doubt”, a- she slipped. As in 2021 in Almaty, she will tackle the parallel mogul event, which will appear on the Olympic program in three years, freed from the pressure. And the desire to do the double that escapes her (in 2017, she had taken gold in parallel and silver in singles). “That’s what we’re going to try to look for. I have a lot more confidence now in dual, I’ve improved a lot in speed and I think I have all the weapons to succeed,” he said. she concluded.
On the other hand, there is no question of skipping the celebration on Saturday evening of the singles title. “I’m going to savor that one!”