Marie-Michèle Gagnon played it safe Sunday during the women’s super-G presented at the conclusion of the World Cup in Val d’Isère, France. The Quebec skier placed 19th at the end of a race in which she voluntarily eased the foot just in order to complete the course and find her bearings for the rest of the season.
“I’m still relieved to have finished (the race) today (Sunday),” she dropped at the outset.
“My plan was not to go 100% and have a big result, but just to finish the course. I went at 75% of my effort and I couldn’t really expect a better result than this. ”
Gagnon finally finished the event 1.59 seconds behind Sofia Goggia and first row. The Italian clocked 1min 19.23s for her second victory of the weekend and a fifth this season.
Norway’s Ragnhild Mowinckel (+0.33 seconds) and Italy’s Elena Curtoni (+0.51 seconds) were respectively silver and bronze medalists at the end of the day.
“It’s a shame, because it’s a fairly easy course, but it was necessary for me,” continued Gagnon, victim of a track excursion on the descent disputed on Saturday.
“Since the start of the season, I’ve made some big mistakes that cost me a lot of time and I needed a race just to get back on track. I needed to trust myself, to prove to myself that I could analyze a course well and to go there a full descent. This is exactly what I managed to do today. ”
The 32-year-old athlete now intends to take advantage of the holiday break to recharge his batteries in Quebec before starting the second part of the campaign which, she hopes, will lead her to the Beijing Games. Its next release is scheduled for January 15, in Austria, on the occasion of the Zauchensee World Cup.
“I had a very good preparation and I had a lot of confidence at the start of the year. I made some mistakes but it is now behind me and I can build on what I did today for the next races. I can’t wait for the rest of the season! ” she concluded.