Skiing is a family affair for the St-Germains.
Jean-François, Laurence’s father, was an excellent mogul skier, finishing eighth on the Pro Mogul Tour, a parallel circuit in the 1980s.
His older brother William was part of the national alpine ski development team about ten years ago. He is making a return to competition this winter.
The St-Germain obviously got up in the early morning to follow Laurence’s first run at the Alpine Skiing World Championships in Méribel.
If William, who was at his girlfriend’s house in Toronto, managed to go back to sleep after seeing her settle down in the third row, his father Jean-François did not close his eyes at the family residence in Saint-Ferréol- the snow.
“I haven’t slept: too much stress! “said the father a few minutes after his daughter’s historic victory on Saturday morning.
His phone was heating up after receiving some 75 congratulatory texts. ” I do not believe it ! It is by far her most important victory, especially this year, where she has had her ups and downs. It’s been seven, eight years since she dreamed of making a podium. When I saw that she had assured, it was mission accomplished. »
But what impressed Jean-François St-Germain even more was the way his daughter won ahead of Mikaela Shiffrin, probably the best skier in history.
Mikaela still started with a 0.6 second lead and Laurence beat her by 0.5. She really won the second round. She deserved it. Today was the best.
Jean-François St-Germain, on his daughter’s victory
His only regret was to have canceled his planned trip to Méribel due to professional obligations…
“Roller coaster of emotions”
William, he was no longer in place with his lover, whom he was visiting in the Queen City after spending a few weeks in Europe to compete in races.
“We were freaking out, we were screaming, my girlfriend was crying and I also shed a few tears, that’s for sure! “, he related, still stirred, at the end of the line.
Wendy Holdener’s disqualification and Mikaela Shiffrin’s troubles kept them on edge. “It was a wicked roller coaster of emotions! »
PHOTO MARCO TROVATI, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Wendy Holdener after her disqualification
Impressed by his sister, the 30-year-old engineer wasn’t surprised at how she handled the pressure of starting in the bottom three.
“Of course she must have been nervous, but she just had to trust herself. When I saw her push at the start, I knew straight away that she was going with confidence. I knew that it announced a good run. She showed that she was strong in the head because she had never been in this position. »
William got to see firsthand how fast his sister has been skiing lately. At the end of a telephone conversation at the beginning of the month, they realized that they would find themselves about fifteen minutes from each other in Italy.
After an internship in Slovenia, the big brother made a detour to Tarvisio to visit his sister and even do a day of training with the Canadian slalom women…
“I stayed one night at their hotel, its technician even offered me tuner my skis… I spent a couple of hours in the waxing room talking about skis with the technicians and the coaches, then we trained together the next day. »
This unexpected return to “the good old days” was tasty and fruitful. The little sister wanted to heat her big brother’s buttocks…
“We had a lot of fun. We coached each other, we tripped, we fought. I think that motivated her one more tick to try to beat her brother. I had to push a lot… You could see right away that she was skiing really hard. Maybe that was just the click she needed. Like: hey, it’s not that complicated, skiing…”
Obviously not for the St-Germains…
An inspiration
PHOTO FRANCIS BOMPARD, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
James Crawford with his super-G gold medal won last week
Laurence St-Germain’s gold medal crowns an unexpected fortnight for Canada at the World Championships in Méribel and Courchevel, which end this Sunday with the men’s slalom.
This fourth podium is a historic high for the Maple Leaf, which is fourth in the medal table behind Norway (8), Switzerland (7) and Austria (7), tied with the United States.
James Crawford hit hard from the start by winning the super-G last week. Cameron Alexander followed up with bronze in the super-G. Valérie Grenier, Britt Richardson and brothers Erik and Jeffrey Read also won bronze in the mixed team parallel event.
“It was really inspiring to watch the races where I trained in Italy,” said St-Germain, who was preparing in Val d’Aosta. In fact, it was almost frustrating not being there and not being able to celebrate with everyone! I think that’s what inspired me today. I wanted to be part of it and I am very proud to have succeeded. »
This world title is the first for a Canadian skier since Mélanie Turgeon’s downhill triumph in Saint-Moritz in 2003. In slalom, we have to go back to Anne Heiggtveit and her gold medal at the Squaw Valley Games in 1960, a when the Olympics acted as world championships. Nancy Greene won silver eight years later in Grenoble.
Erik Guay, crowned in downhill in 2011 and in super-G in 2017, is the only other Quebec skier to have achieved the feat.