Perrine Laffont on February 4, 2021 in Deer Valley, Utah.

-

Tom Pennington / Getty Images North America / AFP

  • The global health situation has melted the calendar of the Mogul Skiing World Cup, won for the fourth time in a row by Perrine Laffont.

  • The 22-year-old Ariège hopes to win the individual title at the world championships in March in Kazakhstan.

    The only line missing from his record.

  • One of the leading figures of French sport tells how the pandemic has changed her daily life as a top athlete.

The Covid-19 continues to disrupt the planet, and therefore the small universe of mogul skiing, with the schedule greatly reduced by the pandemic.

Victorious in four of the first five stages of the World Cup, on hiatus since February 5, Perrine Laffont is already guaranteed to win a fourth globe in a row.

The 22-year-old Ariège is training at Alpe d'Huez while waiting for the final race, on March 14 in Almaty.

The Kazakh site will previously host, on March 8 and 9, the world championships both in parallel and in individual, the only title missing from the insatiable Olympic gold medalist of 2018 in Pyeongchang.

With this fourth World Cup in a row, you crush your discipline ...

I'm doing well, I'm fine (laughs).

But there is a bunch of young people arriving.

The one behind me in the general classification (the Japanese Anri Kawamura) is only 16 years old and she is on the podium in every race.

It grows behind, the battle is not going to be easy.

In the World Cup, I have no margin for error.

I have to do big runs because behind, they do too.

How do you live this curious season, planed by the health situation?

We are lucky to be able to train.

But it's long and it's hard.

Usually, in the winter, we have our heads in the handlebars, the races are linked and we keep a certain pace until the end of the season.

There, we did the first three competitions in December before a two-month break.

We have time to relax.

It is not easy to manage.

But we will have to be ready when the competitions are there.

What are you doing to kill time?

Already, we continue to train a lot.

During certain periods, we go ski touring, we take care of ourselves as much as possible by playing sports outside.

We try not to go too much on social networks because we see the others who are competing and it's a bit annoying.

And then, we follow the Nordic and Alpine Skiing World Championships, it's quite entertaining for ten days.

We also read, we watch films ...

While keeping the world championships in mind, and in particular the individual race?

Yes, it would be great to complete the loop in terms of the charts this year.

At barely 22 years old, wouldn't it be a bit early to stay motivated afterwards?

I do not think so.

I know I still have a lot of room for improvement.

Like I said, there are other girls pushing behind and that pushing me too.

I have already won the best medal, gold at the Olympics, but that did not make me want to move on.

If I win the world singles championships, that won't make me want to stop, especially one year before the Olympics in China.

However, you already experienced a slack a while ago, right?

A year and a half ago, yes.

It wasn't weariness, more exhaustion.

I have had big seasons with big goals: the world championships in 2017, the Olympic Games in 2018, again the world championships in 2019. My medal at the Games turned a lot of things in my life upside down. filled my calendar.

I still had requests, I no longer had time to find myself, to rest.

I arrived tired in internship.

There were a lot of expectations around me and the pressure was starting to get heavy.

I changed things a bit, I took a step back.

By sorting the requests?

Yes, I said no to a lot of things.

My goal was to continue skiing and have fun again.

We had to make choices.

Mentally, I also worked a lot on the approach to competitions.

I freed myself from a certain weight and it allowed me to start again better.

Do you already know until when you will be skiing?

Frankly, I have no idea.

When I started in the World Cup, I told myself that I would ski competitively until I was 30.

When I had my difficult year, in 2019, I told myself that I will never make it to that age.

As long as I'm having fun, enjoying what I'm doing, happy going to training to improve, I'll keep going.

When I no longer have the same desire, it will be time to stop.

Where are you in your studies?

I finished my DUT in marketing technique in Annecy and I am doing a marketing and commercial relations license.

We learn what life in a company is, commerce, that will be useful for the future.

Since the retirement of Martin Fourcade in March 2020, do you say to yourself that there is a place of leader in French skiing to take?

Not necessarily.

I do things for myself, for the partners and the people around me.

Martin was the spokesperson for French sport because his discipline and his personality were popular.

If people appreciate my discipline and that makes me one of the spokespersons, I'll be totally proud of it, but it's not just up to me.

Many businesses are suffering with the Covid.

Did this affect your sponsors?

No, I work with partners who continue to support me despite the crisis.

Of course we were afraid of that.

It is thanks to the partners that we finance mental preparation, medical care, internship trips and many other things.

So there was stress, but I am lucky to be surrounded by the MGEN, the army, Hyundai, my department (Ariège), the Occitanie region.

And I signed others.

Nobody let me go, it's great.

You are very committed against global warming, but you practice a discipline with a large carbon footprint.

How do you deal with this paradox?

It's a double-edged sword: we try to protect the environment but we also take transport that pollutes.

That said, the goal isn't for everyone to stop doing what they're doing.

Otherwise, we all confine ourselves and we are sure that no one will pollute.

Sport is important in life.

People are happy to watch us compete in China, Kazakhstan and the United States.

We see an evolution.

For example, airlines, especially Air France, work hard to make planes less polluting.

It's up to us to work with companies that are helping to change things.

But we will not be able to stop everything, otherwise, it would be unlivable.

We must also take advantage of the small pleasures of life.

Are you worried about the future of your sport?

Yes, the mountain area is one of the most affected by global warming.

This is why we are so aware.

You are a Pyrenean woman in a predominantly “alpine” sport.

Do you feel a certain pride?

Yes totally.

I claim my Pyrenean origins 100%.

These are my values, my character.

This is where I learned to ski.

Being the only Pyrenean in the French mogul team is a source of pride.

I always try to do well to show that it is not only the Alpins who succeed at the high level.

Sport

Ski: How Olympic champion Perrine Laffont takes action against global warming despite "guilt"

Sport

Mogul skiing: And three!

Perrine Laffont wins the World Cup in mogul skiing

  • Olympic Games

  • Video

  • World Championship

  • Interview

  • Pyrenees

  • Ski

  • Sport

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19