Skier Justine Dufour-Lapointe triumphs in her second freeride race

Justine Dufour-Lapointe scored her first career victory on the Freeride World Tour on Thursday, in only her second race on this circuit.

Dufour-Lapointe, 28, earned 74 points for her run, which was punctuated by numerous jumps.

This result allowed him to climb to second place in the general classification of the discipline.

Last week, in Baqueira Beret, Spain, the two-time Olympic medalist settled for sixth place after performing a back somersault.

The top five ranked skiers after the next stop in mid-February at Kicking Horse in Golden, BC will advance to the FWT finals. These will take place in Fieberbrunn, Austria, and Verbier, Switzerland, in March.

Dufour-Lapointe announced in December that she will continue her career on the FWT. At the same time, she became the first Quebecer — and the first Olympian — to join this circuit, which was founded in 1996 in Switzerland.

The principle of freeride is simple: there is no timer, no worked jumps or even groomed runs. There is a start gate and a finish gate. The descents take place in a natural environment and the athletes are at the mercy of all the elements found there: rocks, trees, crevices, etc. Additionally, athletes may not ski the target mountain face prior to competition. They have to analyze it with distance binoculars.

The participants are then judged for the quality of their descent and are offered a mark between 0 and 100. The jury is made up of four judges whose mark is granted according to five evaluation criteria: the difficulty and the choice of the line, control, fluidity, jumps and technique. The athlete with the most points at the end of the season is crowned world champion.

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