(Montreal) Double Olympic medalist Justine Dufour-Lapointe, who had already been thinking about her sporting future for a few months, has swapped the rigid frame of freestyle skiing for the much more permissive one of ‘freeride’.
Dufour-Lapointe announced Tuesday morning that she will continue her career on the Freeride World Tour (FWT). At the same time, she became the first Quebecer to join this circuit, which was founded in 1996 in Switzerland.
“After three Olympic cycles and 12 incredible years on the World Cup circuit in moguls, I felt I needed new challenges,” Dufour-Lapointe said in a video posted on his social media. I felt like my career wasn’t over and I still had that fire burning inside me. »
The principle of ‘freeride’ is simple: there is no timer, no worked jumps or even groomed runs. There is a start gate and a finish gate. The descents take place in a natural environment and the athletes are at the mercy of all the elements found there: rocks, trees, crevices, etc. Additionally, athletes may not ski the target mountain face prior to competition. They have to analyze it with distance binoculars.
The participants are then judged for the quality of their descent and are offered a mark between 0 and 100. The jury is made up of four judges whose mark is granted according to five evaluation criteria: the difficulty and the choice of line, control, fluidity, jumps and technique. The athlete with the most points at the end of the season is crowned world champion.
“I want to give myself freedom in a whole new environment,” she continued. I want to perfect myself in another discipline and connect with the mountains in another way. I am launching this new challenge to rediscover the adrenaline that I have always had for skiing and to get out of my comfort zone. I want to chart my own path and leave my mark,” she said.
The 28-year-old skier will therefore begin this new chapter of her career in Kicking Horse, B.C., from January 13-18, 2023. The FWT season will have five stops in total, culminating in Verbier, Switzerland, from March 25 to April 2.
Dufour-Lapointe won gold in moguls at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. She also finished ninth in the moguls event at the Beijing Games last winter. .
She also has 49 career podiums on the Freestyle Skiing World Cup circuit, including 15 victories. She also has four career World Championship medals, including a win in moguls at the 2015 Worlds.