Laurie Blouin | “It hasn’t been…”

(Beijing) On her last jump, Laurie Blouin still had a chance. If she did as well as on her second jump, she won bronze.

Yves Boisvert
The Press

“Even me, in the air, I was like: yeah, that’s it! But in the end, it wasn’t…”

A bad landing caused him to lose most of his points for this decisive third jump. She finished eighth, one spot behind the other Canadian in the final, Jasmine Baird.

Except Baird, 22, was making his first Olympic final, and a seventh-place finish is satisfying. For Blouin, 12^and at the big jump in 2018 but silver medalist the same year in slopestyle, the ambitions were higher. She finished fourth this year in slopestyle and was also fourth after qualifying in the big jump.

But her eighth place “is not as bad as fourth,” she said after the competition.

“I prefer a ninth place where I fall than missing the podium after having made my best jump. »

After his second very good jump, moreover, we could hear him, even reading his lips, send a sincere “kin, tabarnac!” revengeful for this big jump that had made him fall on the first try.

The event is only in its second appearance at the Olympic Games, and the athletes feel the need to plead its cause. Each successful spectacular jump, each maneuver that pushes the level a little further further anchors the credibility of the big leap, which has long been present at the X Games.

It is not for nothing that all the competitors were delighted with the audacity of the Japanese Reira Iwabuchi, the first to attempt a “triple cork” in Olympic competition – the norm for women is the double.

It didn’t pay off in the end, as Iwabuchi finished fourth, but a new frontier was crossed. “It says a lot about the evolution of our sport, it’s such a great leap. »

“I’ve already tried that in air cushion training,” Blouin said, without giving the impression of wanting to try again soon, preferring to perfect “other more technical jumps.”

The Austrian Anna Gasser, 30, world number 1 this year, leaves with the gold of the big jump for the second time in a row.

At 25, Blouin still has several years of improvement ahead of her, and she clearly intends to continue.