The 2019 big air world champion is lining up for the Worlds in Bakuriani (Georgia), which start on Monday.
Difficult to find space in the medal cabinet. At 21, Tess Ledeux has already forged a nice track record and intends to complete her collection in Bakuriani, Georgia, on the occasion of the freestyle ski world championships which began on Sunday February 19 and will end on March 5. . Slopestyle world champion in 2017 (track equipped with springboards and ramps), very first big air world champion in 2019 (single springboard), Olympic vice-champion in Beijing in this same discipline, one wonders what could stop the Savoyard. “A concussion and a plane problem”replies the skier tac-au-tac, with a smirk.
Tess Ledeux returned to her funny season, lived to the rhythm of falls and hazards. Returning to her best level, the latter intends to play her card at the Worlds, in a rapidly evolving discipline.
Franceinfo: sport: Have you fully recovered from your concussion, suffered at the end of October and how are you approaching these Worlds?
Tess Ledeux: Yes, I resumed everything normally, even if I had some neck scars that lasted a bit. My fall, at the end of October, after winning the first stage of the Big Air World Cup in Chur, Switzerland, forced me to take three weeks of complete rest. It was frustrating but I took my pain patiently.
When I returned to the circuit, I was obviously late. The girls had two months of skiing in their legs, when I had a week in total. But I try to take it easy. The Laax World Cup in Switzerland (3rd) and the X Games (2nd) reassured me. I had a lot of fun and I managed to get some very decent runs, despite the lack of training. If I managed to quickly find my level, it’s because, technically, I was on point.
“We are in a post-Olympic season and my body is still tired from all the intensity I have been able to put into my training for the past two years. So I am taking the time to listen to myself more.”
Tess Ledeuxat franceinfo: sport
After missing two World Cup stages in Stubai (Austria) and Mammoth Mountain (USA), the crystal globe now seems out of reach. Have you refocused your objectives on the Worlds?
Following my concussion, I had to revise my goals a bit. It was very hard to have to give up on the general classification, not for a health problem, but for a logistical problem. Un accident on the road and a problem at the airport prevented us from leaving on time for the United States. With the following flight, I would have had only forty minutes of training, instead of the two days to familiarize myself with the snowpark. Four years ago I would have said: “Let’s go ! We will manage to put something in place at the last moment”. But there, the trauma was fresh and I had chained the competitions. So I forfeited. At the time, I felt a lot of injustice. This year, nothing is going as planned. But the season is not over and there are still the world championships.
Last year at the X Games, you performed the first women’s double cork 1620 (double off-axis vertical rotation, with 4.5 turns on itself). This year, it was the Canadian Megan Oldham who innovated with a triple cork. Is women’s freestyle skiing experiencing a golden period?
Yes, we all feel this emulation! Between skiers, we push each other up and we are waiting for the next new trick. We wonder who will pass the jump first! The level is incredible and I am very happy to be part of this generation of athletes. We are truly experiencing a new era of women’s freestyle skiing.
The boys have reached such an alien level that there aren’t really any surprises anymore. For the girls, the room for improvement remains huge and it’s very exciting. On these Worlds, I will redo the new jumps that I worked on at the X Games, with variations in the level of the grabs, that is to say, in the level of the technique with which I catch my skis. The easiest is near the shoe. I will try to make them more complex.
