Justine Dufour-Lapointe had a sad ending for her experience in the freestyle skiing event at the Beijing Olympics on Sunday.
Justine Dufour-Lapointe was the last Canadian to start the first leg of the final. The Quebecer and double Olympic medalist fell heavily during the mogul sequence following her first jump. After remaining on the ground for a few moments, Justine Dufour-Lapointe got up, asked for her stick that she had lost in her fall and went down the track to complete the event even though her competition was over. cannot go to the next step.
“It’s really not what I expected to experience at my third Olympic Games. I’ve never prepared so much for the Games,” Justine told Radio-Canada following her race.
“I never gave up, I always believed in myself, that I might be with these champions. I told myself that I was going to dare, to try big jumps. That’s what I’m proud of today,” she added.
The first Canadian to have walked the track a few moments before, Chloé Dufour-Lapointe achieved her best performance of the week obtaining 73.60 points from the judges. She was just overtaken by her compatriot Sofiane Gagnon who recorded a score of 74.44. Both managed to finish among the top 12 skiers in order to advance to the next round of the final.
Chloé followed up with a run that earned her a score of 72.96 from the judges, but it wasn’t enough to advance to the super final. She finished the competition in ninth place.
“Just coming to the Olympics was quite a challenge and I took it on. What I achieved tonight was bigger,” said Chloé Dufour-Lapointe following her run.
“I trusted the process and I have no regrets,” she added.
For her part, Gagnon suffered the same fate as Justine Dufour-Lapointe during her attempt to reach the super final. She was able to get up quickly following her fall and she was still happy with her Olympic experience once at the bottom of the track.
“It’s a shame, but I’m super proud and happy with what I did. It can happen to anyone in training or in competition and it’s a shame that it happened in competition,” she said in an interview with Radio Canada.
Australia’s Jakara Anthony won the gold medal with a total of 83.09 points. She finished ahead of American Jaelin Kauf and Russian Olympic Committee athlete Anastasiia Smirnova.
After just missing out on qualifying for the final in the first run earlier this week, Chloé Dufour-Lapointe bounced back Sunday followingnoon in Beijing with a score of 70.45 which was enough to finish among the 10 best skiers in their group in order to reach the final.
Showing up immediately following her compatriot, Gagnon flew over the track to register 75.63 points and the best result of this qualifying session. She easily got her ticket to the final.
