Justine Dufour-Lapointe after moguls crash: Never give up

After crashing on Beijing 2022's moguls, Canada's Justine Dufour-Lapointe says her only choice was to get back up and finish her run, because you never give up.

Justine Dufour-Lapointe completes her run at Beijing 2022 moguls
(2022 Getty Images)

Canada's freestyle skiing moguls skier Justine Dufour-Lapointe arrived at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 with a host of records at her fingertips.

But after crashing in the elimination round of 20, the Sochi 2014 gold medallist and PyeongChang 2018 silver medallist’s Games were over.

Or so it looked.

The 27-year-old gathered her emotions, and huge disappointment, got back on her skis and finished her run, hitting a clean second trick, before finishing her competition.

She knew she could no longer become the first freestyle skier from Canada to win three consecutive medals at the Olympic Winter Games.

And she couldn’t become a part of the first siblings to win a medal in the same discipline at an Olympic Winter Games twice, with sister Chloe Dufour-Lapointe.

But finishing her competition, holding her head high, giving the world an insight into what just happened, and adding to the inspiration of her Olympic legacy, was next on the agenda.

"Tonight what I'm the most proud of is that I chose to go big. I chose my cork. I chose to prove that I can do it. I can ski all-in and give you the Justine. A bolder, a wilder Justine. It didn't work,” she said at Genting Snow Park on Sunday 06 February.

"But more than the disappointment and the crash, the thing I'm the most proud of tonight is that I never gave up through this hell of a journey."

Justine DUFOUR-LAPOINTE

Canada
Freestyle Skiing
1G
1S

"To come here was so hard and I fought through to the end, and even though I crashed, and I would have liked to just crawl myself into a mogul and cry there for a while, I stood up and said, 'You know what? You have only one choice - to ski down that slope and have a smile at the bottom of the course'.

"Because there's so many youngsters that need to know that you never gave up. You fight till the end. And that's what I did tonight.

"Tonight it's really not easy to get through all the emotions. But having my sisters here, it's my home. They helped me get back on track and be standing here. Because they told me, 'You have only one choice. You have to go talk to them (the journalists) and speak with your heart.

"Sport is not easy, but it's the best school of life we can find.

"I guess one day I will find a great lesson (out of this), but tonight I just believed in myself and never gave up and that's the only thing I want people to remember and keep being myself, having a smile until the end because this is me."

Keep up with all the action in our Live Blog updates throughout Beijing 2022, here.

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