Six days after her bitter-tasting silver medal in the big air, despite her status as world number 1 in the discipline, the French Tess Ledeux, 20, was very scared, this Monday, during the slopestyle qualifications at the Winter Olympics 2022, which had been postponed by 24 hours due to complicated weather conditions.
Ninth after the two rounds, she will be one of the twelve participants in the final – which will take place tomorrow in Beijing (2:30 a.m.) – including her main rival, the Chinese Eileen Gu, third in qualifying, who had deprived the Frenchwoman of gold to everyone’s surprise thanks to a double cork 1620 on his last run.
A fall for Ledeux, a rough run for Gu
Despite a gap in the day’s ranking, the two big favorites in freestyle skiing nevertheless had a fairly similar day. After falling on her first run, Tess Ledeux, who had already missed the 2018 slopestyle final in Pyeongchang due to a fall, corrected the situation with a sure second pass (a score of 68.13) without being flamboyant. Sufficient nevertheless for the one who had to cross her fingers and wait for the passage of several competitors to validate her place in the final.
The Chinese star Eileen Gu, who released a first rough run with a score of 57.28 points, did not hit the peaks either. She finally qualified on her second run with a score of 79.38, placing her behind Estonian Kelly Sildaru (86.15 points) and Norwegian Johanne Killi (86 points). “Qualifying is always scary,” she commented on arrival.
“It really wasn’t easy. But it was the same for all the girls. There was a postponement yesterday, it was very cold and we are not used to skiing in these conditions, ”explained the Frenchwoman at the microphone of France Télévisions. “The snow was really weird and the fatigue is starting to set in. It was a big challenge. Qualifications are never easy to manage. You have to find the middle ground. Today, I had planned a very easy run and I also made mistakes. »
“Generally, I’m more relaxed in the final”
Tess Ledeux then wanted to show her optimism before Tuesday’s final. “It will be a new competition. The counters will be reset. And usually I’m more relaxed in the final because I’m 100%. I am going to recharge my batteries and I hope to be ready”, concluded the one who was world slopestyle champion in 2017 and who will have to greatly raise her level to hope to win the best medal of her young career.
A business that will inevitably be complicated by Eileen Gu, gold medalist in the discipline in January 2021 at the X Games in Aspen, a benchmark competition in freestyle during which Tess Ledeux was absent due to the death of her father at the same time. But regarding the regularity in slopestyle this season, the Frenchwoman seems to be taking the lead with her 2021 slopestyle crystal globe and her title at the last X Games, on January 23, 2022. Only need to demonstrate it this Tuesday for tears to come. of the big air, of February 8, are replaced by a radiant smile.