After crashing on Saturday, Laurence St-Germain came back strong on Sunday with a 9th place finish at the Levi Slalom World Cup in Finland.
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St-Germain, 14th after the first heat, opened the machine to climb into the top 10 for the third time in his career in Finland. She finished the race with a time of 1:54:22 compared to gold medalist Mikaela Shiffrin who flew around the track in 1:52:21.
Despite her crash on Saturday, St-Germain climbed back up the course to reach the gate she missed and complete her descent. Her time obviously wasn’t enough to qualify for the second heat, but she did have some positive results.
“I was able to cross the wall on skis and cross the finish line,” St-Germain explained his decision. The stress of the first race was gone and I was more relaxed. I was solid at the top of the course on Saturday and kept attacking even when I made a mistake on the flat.
St-Germain could sit in the leader’s chair for quite a while.
“I didn’t think I would stay there that long,” she said. That hadn’t happened to me in a long time. It feels really good.”
After the first round, the double Olympian forgot her mishap from the previous day.
“I was motivated to ride the first two sectors the same as on Saturday, but I made a mistake. In the second run I thought more about the first race and rode the wall better by being aggressive. This result gives me confidence because I still have room for improvement and because I had two good runs that I struggled to do last year due to lack of consistency.
Germain and the great white circus will be guests in Killington, Vermont, next weekend, an event the skier from Saint-Férréol-les-Neiges really appreciates.
“It’s really special to drive in front of my family,” she said. It adds extra stress, but it’s good stress. It would be a dream to be on the podium in front of my family, but the goal, like in Levi, is to be consistent. The course is short and a small mistake is expensive.”
New way of thinking
Germain feels the American champion and multiple Olympic gold medalist is in better shape than last year.
“She’s calmer and more composed,” she said. She also rubs shoulders more with her teammates. She was so consistent and unbeaten at Killington.”
“The gap is smaller at the weekend, St-Germain added, but Shiffrin is unbeatable on this type of course. In the transition from flat to downhill, it is untouchable. The gap is less than when he started and his performances are up to standard.