Laurence St-Germain was far from satisfied with her first outing of the season on Saturday at the Slalom World Cup in Levi, Finland, where she was limited to just one run. Fortunately for the athlete from Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges, she was able to quickly put this event aside with the presentation of a second World Cup on Sunday, still on Levi’s side.
St-Germain did not miss her chance by taking seventh place of the day, notably thanks to a second run where she stopped the clock at 55.24 s, for a total of 1 min 53 s (1.32 seconds ).
“I was pretty disappointed yesterday [Saturday], but I’m lucky to have been able to get back on track the next day. I am very satisfied with my day, especially my second run where I really skied like I do in training,” mentioned St-Germain in an interview with Sportcom.
“I was still bothered by my race yesterday before the competition started today [Sunday]. It’s rare that this happens to me, usually I manage to get over it after a few hours. But, from the start of my first round, I focused on the new day and I wanted to attack to get a good result,” she added.
American Mikaella Shiffrin won on Sunday, being faster than Croatian Leona Popovic (0.18 seconds) and German Lena Duerr (0.30 seconds).
A performance below expectations is always difficult to accept for a high-level athlete. According to St-Germain, it is even more frustrating when this poor performance occurs at the very start of the season.
“It’s definitely not easy to start the season with tough competition. The first race doesn’t necessarily dictate the rest of the season, but you definitely ask yourself more questions when you start like that. I know I made mistakes on the course, I had an excuse so to speak, but I wanted to forget all that quickly,” noted the reigning slalom world champion.
Also in action in Levi, Justine Lamontagne finished 62nd at what was the second World Cup of her career. St-Germain, who has seen Lamontagne rise through the ranks of her sport in recent years, was impressed by the aggressiveness she showed during her first World Cup weekend.
“It’s so much fun to have him! I skied with her sister Claudia when I was younger so in my head, Justine was always each other’s little sister. I have followed her progress over the last few years and she is quite surprising. She showed no complexes during the weekend, she attacked the course well,” rejoiced St-Germain.
Back in Montreal for a few days, Laurence St-Germain will now head to Killington, Vermont, for the next World Cups of the season which will take place from November 25 to 26.
“These are always my favorite races in Killington! I am happy to have had a good result today, it motivates me more for the next World Cup where I will want to do even better in front of my family who will be there,” she concluded.