With 80.20 points in the six-man final, Laffont narrowly edged Japanese Anri Kawamura (80.03) and Australian Jakara Anthony (79.84), who had nevertheless shown herself to be dominant in qualifying and during the first run of the final.
Laffont grabs the yellow bib as leader of the World Cup and gains confidence just three weeks before the Beijing Olympics (February 4-20).
With her 24th victory on the world circuit, the 3rd this season, the reigning Olympic champion is back to the top after a difficult start to the season marked by worse results than usual, and by a heavy fall at Alpe d' Boo in December.
The skiers continue with a second competition on Friday in Deer Valley, the last before the Olympics.
No Frenchman qualified for the men's final marked by the frightening accident of the American George McQuinn.
In the six-man final, the 23-year-old came off balance on one of the two jumps and hit the springboard hard with the back of his head, flying seemingly lifeless several meters and falling hard on the track he continued to descend on his stomach, inert.
McQuinn was evacuated on a stretcher a few minutes later, under the worried eyes of the spectators and his competitors.
Canadian Mikael Kingsbury then won.
© 2022 AFP