Physically and mentally exhausted, Tess Ledeux left the Olympics with a 7th place finish at Slopestyle on Tuesday.
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Their rivalry had ignited the Big Air at the start of the Games. Eileen Gu and Tess Ledeux met on Tuesday February 15 for the slopestyle final at the Genting Snow Park in Zhiangjakou. In a polar cold close to -20 degrees, the Frenchman returned to the ranks with a disappointing 7th place. Gu pulled off another feat in her final run to win the silver medal behind Switzerland’s Mathilde Gremaux and ahead of Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru.
Nothing was spared the young 20-year-old from Plagnard, who arrived at these Games with an ultra-favorite sign. Patroness of the last X-Games in Big Air as in Slopestyle with new tricks, everything was rolling for Ledeux. This beautiful confidence flew like Eileen Gu in the sky of Beijing. By stealing the Big Air gold from the French on her last run, the Chinese has shaken all the certainties of the tricolor nugget. It had already been seen during slopestyle qualifying finished in 9th place after a failed first run.
The final, shifted by one day because of the weekend’s snowfall, had the advantage of resetting the counters to zero. A real chance, especially since we thought the machine was relaunched during the first run of the final. A very clean pass noted at 72.91 which put her on the provisional podium behind the Estonian Kelly Sildaru while Gu struggled to approach 70. This duel was very quickly eclipsed by the second run of the Swiss Mathilde Gremaux (86.56), the alone that she was going to manage to pass in this final but enough to win the title.
Because behind, Ledeux could not ski at his level. During his last two runs, La Plagnarde stumbled on his switch 1000, an essential movement to hope to climb on the podium. In particular, she suffered a big fall during the second pass with a slight finger injury. “I was very tired. The last few days have been very complicated“, confessed Ledeux after her final, acknowledging that she even came close to giving up yesterday.”Lots of back pain, a little sick… It wasn’t madness. I tried to get past it all today but I think I needed a rest.“
Gu still had a little under her skis to pull off a final run. Enough to collect the silver medal with an 86.23 while the Estonian Kelly Sildaru obtained a deserved bronze in view of her runs. “There are a lot of frustrations there because I know that I was able to get beautiful things today“, added Ledeux proud despite everything of her medal at the Big Air. “It’s something that will make me grow.“To go even higher next time.