© Marco BERTORELLO © 2019 AFP
Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont, following her 4th place in the Olympic final in mogul skiing at the Beijing Games, February 6, 2022 in Zhangjiakou
Regardless of the sport practiced, a phenomenon very often comes up when an athlete performs poorly: criticism on social networks, which regularly turns into hate messages intended to humiliate. Fourth in the mogul ski final at the Olympic Games, Perrine Laffont engages in an interview the teamin which she returns to the impact that this can have: “It’s super hurtful. We don’t know these people, but it’s so easy for them to send us a message like that and “trasher” (…) It stays with us. It almost becomes a fear, and we come to say to ourselves “If I miss my race, what will people say tomorrow?”
This pressure does nothing to help athletes perform better in the future. Especially since the desire to sometimes do too well in this type of event can lead to a poor performance, as the skier confides: “It’s hard because we already have our stress, linked to the fact of performing, of Feeling good on D-Day, meeting the expectations of the people around us (…) It adds passion and fear. And that’s hard to manage.”
The obligation of “a presence on social networks”
Despite this outpouring of hatred, Peine Laffont believes that it is difficult for athletes to detach themselves from social networks, especially for reasons concerning partnerships and communication with fans: “We are somewhat obliged as athletes to have this presence on social networks, to communicate our daily life but also for sponsors and partners.”
If the French spoke, it was mainly to support the American Mikaela Shiffrin, who received lots of violent words on her Twitter account. An outburst in front of which, Perrine Laffont might not remain without reaction: “Mikaela, she is in her third Games. the American media (…) When I saw the messages that were sent to me, and those of Mikaela which were very violent, we say to ourselves that it is not possible.
