Despite all the uncertainty surrounding the 2022 Olympics, Laurie Blouin can’t wait to fly to Beijing.
Posted at 7:00 a.m.
“I just expect to have fun,” the snowboarder said on the phone between Christmas and New Year’s Day. “I saw 3D drawings of the course. I can’t wait to see it in person. »
The Stoneham athlete won the silver medal in the acrobatic downhill (slopestyle) in PyeongChang, in 2018, when she was 21 years old. She has since become one of the favorites on the circuit, with three World Cup podiums in 2020, another in 2022, and four medals in as many years at the X Games, including gold in the big jump (big air) , in 2019. She also stood out with first place in this event at the Aspen World Championships in 2021.
“It is sure that I will aim for a podium [aux Jeux], she points out. But I don’t really think about it so as not to put pressure on myself. »
So that’s Blouin’s philosophy. “When you’re having fun, that’s where it all works,” she explains.
Yes, it’s good to have goals, but don’t think about it too much. Too much is like not enough. I want to go with the flow.
Laurie Blouin
But the fact remains that the COVID-19 has changed the game, for the practice of his sport as for the rest of the world, and continues to do its thing. Do these changing conditions affect it?
“I had it, the COVID-19, reveals Blouin. It’s not necessarily catching it that scares me, it’s more being taken somewhere, away from home, for 10 days. It’s not really fun. That’s why it’s stressful. »
And the atmosphere off the track at competitions paid the price, too.
“Each person has their opinion on it, it separates the teams a bit,” she says. It’s less like before, where everyone stayed in the same hotel when they could. There was more social life. There are still some, but it’s really different. »
The pandemic years
Snowboarders like Blouin are, by necessity, globetrotters. Their sport makes them travel to the four corners of the world for competitions, but also to train.
This quest for snow takes her annually to Saas Fee, in the Swiss Alps, in October. “There is no competition, it’s like on a glacier, explains Blouin. We have a training camp there. »
She also likes to go to Laax, a municipality in the east of Switzerland. “Every time we go there, there is always lots of snow, it’s really cool, she rejoices. You can slide in the powder. It really is a beautiful mountain. »
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, PRESS ARCHIVES
Laurie Blouin
When asked if her search for surfer white gold has taken her somewhere less well-known, she says she now travels almost every November to Mount Sima, near Whitehorse, Yukon.
“They still have snow early,” she explains. […] Often it’s just the Canadians who go there. It really is a nice set-up. Not that it just came out of nowhere, but for training and stuff, you don’t necessarily expect to go to the Yukon.
“We have private sessions,” she adds. It’s fun because it opens early, so it allows us to train earlier in the season, to have a shorter break between Europe in October and the start of the season in December, January. »
The X Games, still the biggest competition
Blouin admits it: despite the addition of slopestyle to the Olympics in 2014, the X Games are still the premier competition of his sport.
“They have a special place because it’s been around for a long time, compares the athlete from the Quebec region. This is THE most renowned extreme sports competition.
“It’s also that they don’t invite a lot of people. It’s really hard to come back. The Olympics, yes, it’s big, but they invite a lot more people. It’s an amateur competition, as they say. The X Games, they only invite eight girls. Just because you go home one year doesn’t mean you’ll go home the other year. You can’t take your place for granted. »
The fact remains that the Olympic Games are synonymous with visibility.
“It will be the third time that there will be slopestyle, underlines Blouin. It’s cool that it’s getting better known. »