Perrine Laffont: "I want to experience these Games in a cool way"

Perrine Laffont is only 23-years-old but she will participate at the Olympic Winter Games for a third time. At Beijing 2022, the French skier will try to defend her Olympic title in the women's moguls competition.

While Laffont has admitted that the external pressure she has felt since her victory at PyeongChang 2018 almost led to her retiring from the sport, going back to 'the basics' of skiing has given her a new state of mind ahead of the Games.

The reigning Olympic, world and Crystal Globe champion spoke to Olympics.com about her goals for Beijing 2022.

In the Beijing 2022 moguls competition, Perrine Laffont will defend her Olympic title and try to make history; no athlete has ever managed to successfully defend their Olympic title in women's moguls.

Since her victory at PyeongChang 2018, the Lavelanet native has risen into a new dimension. She has won three world titles (one in moguls, two in dual moguls) and four Crystal Globes. She also went into goddess-mode from January 2018 to the end of the 2020/21 season, reaching the podium at 17 consecutive World Cup events (not to mention winning nine of them in a row).

With 21 World Cup event wins, Laffont is the most successful active women's moguls skier in the world. But despite her incredible achievements, the Olympic champion went through a period where she lost the motivation to compete. In the Road to Beijing 2022 documentary, Laffont confessed that at one point she had considered retirement.

"I was no longer happy in what I was doing"

"With the pressure and the expectations around me, I had forgotten the pleasure of skiing. I was there to win, to make podiums and nothing else. This pressure was heavy. I didn't enjoy the competition anymore. I thought about retirement because I was no longer happy in what I was doing", she explained.

To find the motivation again, Laffont went back to the basics; she cut out the things that were costing her energy and adding unnecessary pressure, she went to the mountains to ski in nature, she listened to her body and her head and most importantly, she made the goal of finding the joy in skiing again her top priority.

And it worked. With her new state of mind, Laffont is more willing to handle things as they happen and make adjustments without overreacting to the end result.

With this new approach to skiing, Laffont launched herself into the 2021/22 World Cup season, finishing fourth in her first event in Ruka before finding the podium once more (a second-place finish) in Indre Fjall the following week. And even though Laffont's unbelievable podium streak came to an end in Ruka, the Frenchwoman took it positively. On her social media, she even laughed about the end of her winning streak with a picture of her eating chocolate.

"For sure it changes, but I'm not a robot; I can't always win. It's also good because it shows that everything is not acquired; there are still things to work on."

At Beijing 2022, Perrine Laffont wants to experience the Olympic Winter Games in a cool way

Laffont readily admits that for now, her top priority while skiing is simply to have fun and become a better athlete.

"I work to be better technically, in my jumps or mentally, not to be better than another athlete in order to beat them. I take pleasure in feeling myself evolve. That's what is satisfying in sport."

And when she looks back on her progress since her Olympic title, she sees how much she has evolved over the last four years.

"Technically and physically, my run is no longer the same. In four years, mentally, I have changed a lot too. I'm more confident, more stable."

As she prepares for her third Olympic Winter Games, the French skier knows what she wants in Beijing 2022 after finishing 14th in Sotchi 2014 at the age of 15 and winning gold at PyeongChang 2018.

"I want the Games to be 'lighter'. PyeongChang 2018 was very stressful; I felt a lot of pressure [to succeed]. Now, I want to experience the Olympic Winter Games in a lighter way, in a cool way. I don't want to tell myself it's the Olympics so I have to change everything. I just want to keep doing as I usually do."

Laffont has won everything she could and now she has set herself a new goal: have fun!