The French skier won on Saturday in Georgia, during the big jump (or Big Air) event. Tuesday, she had dropped heavily during the acrobatic descent test (or slopestyle).
mo12345lemonde with AFP
This is called resilience. Victim of a spectacular fall on Tuesday in acrobatic descent (or slopestyle), Tess Ledeux was able to recover in a few days to win the big jump (or Big Air) event on Saturday. With 186.75 points, she was ahead of the Norwegian Sandra Eie (175 points) and the Canadian Megan Oldham (174 points), who had dominated her on this same test during the X-Games in Aspen (Colorado) there are five weeks.
At only 21 years old, the Plagne skier offers her third world title of acrobatic skiing on the slopes of Bakuriani, Georgia. At the end of a season started with difficulty, with injuries and a concussion, emotion and relief were visible on the face of Tess Ledeux after his third jump on Saturday afternoon, a successful “double switch” , synonymous with gold medal, while it was on this figure that she had dropped four days ago.
“It’s a dream that becomes reality. I knew this bad fall in slopestyle, there I am so happy, I can’t believe it,” said the Frenchwoman just after this new world title.
Tuesday, she attempted her on her first pass, but she had typed with the top of her skis at the reception of her third jump, hitting the track with her head. She had only taken the 12
” It’s just incredible “
“The pressure was so strong. I am so happy to put this figure, it is the first time for me in competition. It’s just incredible,” she appreciated after her final.
2017 world champion in acrobatic and 2019 leap, Tess Ledeux was one of the favorites for the world title, in the absence of the Olympic and star of acrobatic champion, the Chinese Eileen Gu, injured at the end January to the X-Games.
Leader of the French acrobatic ski team with Perrine Laffont on the bumps, Ledeux put her first jump on Saturday noon, a 1620 (four and a half laps) perfectly by grabbing his skis with his hands, to take control with 94.25 points.
After having missed the reception of her second jump in difficult weather conditions, she held the same figure, a “double switch”, on her third pass, this time succeeding in reception, which earned her the 92.50 points note. She has thus relegated competition to more than ten points from her total.
She won this world title the day when her cousin, the French star of skiing Halfpipe Kevin Rolland, played at 33 her last race – a seventh place at the 2023 Worlds.