The Quebec delegation turned the last page of the freestyle ski jumping season calendar on Sunday in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Despite the fog which got the better of the finals, Marion Thénault won the gold medal in addition to climbing onto the third step of the podium in the final World Cup rankings.
True to form, the Sherbrookoise played her strongest cards from the start on the Kazakh springboard. She performed the jump with the highest degree of difficulty during qualifying (3.525), something she is far from regretting.
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“This year, I won the qualification in all the World Cups I participated in and then, in the final, that’s often where I didn’t perform. Today (Sunday), it really paid off to win the qualification and that’s when we see that it’s useful and that it brings me something to take risks in qualifications, so I was really happy,” said Thénault, now with 10 World Cup podiums.
His score of 94.11 at the start of the day was ultimately enough to win since the finals were canceled due to bad weather conditions. The Quebec skier beat the Australian Danielle Scott (87.25), who won the cumulative ranking, and the Chinese Fanyu Kong (82.21).
The 22-year-old athlete was fourth in the cumulative rankings before his outing today. “I missed a World Cup when I was injured, so it was still difficult for me to stay at the top. I had to beat a girl in the top-3 with whom I had a 27-point gap (the Chinese Meiting Chen), so it was significant and I had to make a podium today to be in the top-3. »
“It’s been a few years since I’ve been too far from the crystal globe, so next year is my year.”
-Marion Thénault
The American Winter Vinecki won silver in this final ranking.
An “incredible” season
Gold medalist at the Ruka World Cup, Thénault was forced to take a month and a half break due to a fall in training in December. “Afterwards, I came back, it was super difficult, but I got on the podium in Quebec with a third place and there, I finished with a first.”
After missing the World Cup in China, the skier who now has four World Cup victories to her name returned to the circuit in Deer Valley before winning bronze in Lac-Beauport.
“My highlight of the season, I think, was when I did the jump again (in training) that I had fallen on. This is the triple that I wanted to compete in today, in the final. When I did it again for the first time, in Quebec three weeks ago, I think it was the proudest moment of my entire season. Beyond the podiums and the results, it meant a lot to me,” she said.
In an interview with Sportcom, Marion Thénault added that it was only a postponement for next season.
“My approach has changed in relation to my jumps and the competition. I learned a lot from that season and still finished third, so the end result is the same, but the journey was totally different. I’m really happy to have had these events this year because I really learned and I think it will make me stronger for next year.
A final which would have put forward 4 Quebecers
On Sunday, on the men’s side, Lewis Irving, who had reached the third step of the podium in Ruka at the start of the season, had the best Canadian result by finishing eighth (106.79) 13 points behind the Chinese winner Guangpu Qi (119 .91), who also won the cumulative ranking.
China’s Guochen Wang (115.93) won silver and American Christopher Lillis (114.16) won bronze. The Swiss Pirmin Werner finished second in the final ranking, 140 points behind the crystal globe, ahead of Christopher Lillis.
Quebecers Pierre-Olivier Côté (9th), Émile Nadeau (10th), bronze medalist in Lac-Beauport, Alexandre Duchaine (11th), decorated with gold in Deer Valley, would all have advanced to the final if the weather conditions had played a role in their favor.
Victor Primeau took 13th place, a result which would have been insufficient to advance to the final.