Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP)

She was already Olympic champion, world champion in parallel and three-time World Cup winner: Perrine Laffont now holds all the major titles in mogul skiing, after her victory at the World Championships on Monday in singles.

Among the men, Benjamin Cavet took the silver medal, behind the untouchable Canadian Mikael Kingsbury.

"I am going to savor this first title of world champion in single, released Perrine Laffont after her triumph, it is enormous to have won almost everything in my discipline".

Superlatives are lacking to describe the fabulous career of this Pyrenean who, at 22, dominates her sport as few champions have done in history.

Her victory at the Almaty track in Kazakhstan is anything but a surprise: the young woman had just won eleven of the last twelve races in World Cup singles.

Her last loss was in January 2019, when she finished second behind Australian Anthony Jakara, fourth on Monday.

"It's a title that I wanted more than anything, she told AFP by phone," I worked hard to get it, I sometimes wanted to send everything for a walk , but I have a great team behind me, they have always supported me ".

- "Music that boosts" -

She beat Kazakhe Yuliya Galysheva and Russian Anastasiia Smirnova, but the battle was tough.

On her snow, Galysheva had an anthology run during the first final, the one which brings together the best 18, and took the lead with a solid lead over the Frenchwoman (almost a point).

"There, I say to myself + it's not possible, I'm number one in the world, I can't finish second. I send everything, I do a run at 120% +", said the champion, "before the run, I put the music on full blast, I chose music that boosts, very aggressive ".

She made the perfect descent.

And waited for the passage of his rival.

Perhaps defeated by the pressure, Galysheva made some imperfections, minimal, but which cost her the title.

Laffont, winner of 21 races in the World Cup, (single and parallel combined) can on Tuesday still clutter up her trophy cabinet a little more with a medal in parallel, of which she is double reigning world champion (2017 and 2019).

His emotion at the announcement of his victory - we saw him shed a few tears, sitting on the ground - once again demonstrated that the Ariégeoise has not lost any of her thirst for victories, despite her XXL record.

- "People don't realize" -

"It's my character of course, but it also comes from my upbringing. My parents were never satisfied with what I was doing on skis, they put all the means at my disposal to help me progress."

Before these Worlds, she assured that she "did not have a lot of margin over the others".

"I have the impression," she said, "that people don't realize it, but there is news coming in, 15/16 year old girls who are hyper-versatile, who know how to ski on all tracks."

In Kazakhstan, Perrine Laffont has in any case shown her rivals that she is mentally indestructible.

Barring an accident, she will once again be the favorite at the Beijing Olympics next winter.

In the men's competition, the huge Canadian favorite Mikael Kingsbury won his fifth world championship title ahead of Cavet.

Kazakh Pavel Kolmakov climbed to the third step of the podium.

Martin Suire and Sacha Theocharis both reached Final 1, taking 9th and 14th places respectively.

Among the women, Camille Cabrol did not go beyond qualifying and finished 21st.

© 2021 AFP