Quebec snowboarder Laurie Blouin finished just off the podium in the slopestyle event at the Beijing Olympics on Saturday night.
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This means that she will not have been able to repeat her exploits achieved in Pyeongchang, in 2018, where she won the silver medal.
The 30-year-old started the final strong. From his first run, Blouin seemed well in control during each of his jumps, which earned him a score of 77.96 points. After the first passage of the 12 snowboarders, the Quebecer was even in third place.
On her second attempt, the representative of the maple leaf made a mistake on the first rails crossed, before making another mistake on the very last jump of her course, which cost her precious points. His meager 46.70 points were not enough to improve his fate.
However, she recovered on her third run. The Quebecer multiplied the spectacular figures with ease, which allowed her to preserve her hopes of a podium. The 81.41 points awarded by the judges were however too few for a podium.
She also finished the event 2.74 points behind Australian Tess Coady, who finished on the third step of the podium.
A hotly contested gold medal
The fight for the gold medal was one of every moment. On her second attempt, American Julia Marino performed all her maneuvers without hesitation and successfully, impressing the judges to the point of obtaining a score of 87.68 points.
However, New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott, who finished first in qualifying and held second place just before starting the last run of the day, put on a show to conclude the event. Even her opponents, impressed by her performance, threw themselves on her when she arrived at the bottom of the slope.
The judges finally gave him a score of 92.88 points, giving him the gold medal at the same time. This means that Marino, for his part, won the money. Sadowski-Synnott is continuing a dream year after winning slopestyle and big air gold at the X Games in January. His Olympic title is the first in New Zealand history at the Winter Olympics, in any event.