Laurence St-Germain has come close to a World Cup podium many times, but this time she climbed to the top step of the podium. And at the Alpine World Ski Championships in Courchevel and Méribel, she did it in France on Saturday.
Third after the first round of the slalom and 0.61 seconds behind the leader, the American Mikaela Shiffrin and 0.42 seconds behind the Swiss Wendy Holdener, the skier from Saint-Ferréol-les-Neiges secured a medal by winning the race after that controlled the second run with these two competitors is still to come.
Holdener then left the track and the formality for Shiffrin would have been to add another world title to the one won in giant slalom, except she was much slower than the Quebecer.
In disbelief, the Quebec native accepted the congratulations of the most successful skier of all time as she was crowned world champion
“I really didn’t expect that,” commented St-Germain, laughing, into the FIS microphone. It’s incredible! I was very stressed and nauseous before the second run, but I’m used to it. I made a mistake at the top of the course, except I kept going and told myself to go all the way down. And it worked.”
This is Canada’s fourth medal at these World Championships.