Olivier Rochon on the podium in Lake Placid
Freestyle Canada – A well-deserved third place for the Gatineau athlete Lake Placid, January 19, 2018 – Olivier Rochon’s sense of timing couldn’t have been better! With tonight’s podium in Lake Placid, Rochon is now in a very good position to pocket his ticket to South Korea. However, he will have to wait until all results are in from this weekend’s competitions to seal his deal.
Rochon accessed the super final after landing his full double full full, a quadruple twisting triple backflip, in qualifications and during the first final. “I had a great week in Lake Placid. I have been jumping here for 12 years, so it is a very familiar environment,” explained Rochon. “Today, everything just fell into place. My qualification jump was good enough to get me to the final, and I managed to improve my score in the final to end up in the super final with a lay double full full, a jump with a lower degree of difficulty but that earned me my best-ever score. We stuck to a conservative plan to get good results and it was the right decision. This is the progression we’ve been trying to achieve all winter and we can finally say ‘mission accomplished’.”
Despite this result, Rochon cannot yet pack his bags for the Games. “This result certainly helps my position for the Olympic qualification. Nothing is yet confirmed and I don’t quite know where I stand because I try not to think about the selection process too much. My goal is simply to jump as best as I can and that is exactly what I did here tonight,” added the aerials team veteran.
Olivier Rochon’s last podium goes back to February 2016 in Deer Valley, where he had finished second.
Lake Placid, one of the most important venues in freestyle history has been hosting aerials World Cup events since 1985. Aerialists will be back in action here tomorrow night for the second portion of this double program, which also concludes the World Cup season for aerialists before the Olympic Games.
Upcoming events (January)
- FIS World Cup – January 19 – Mammoth – Halfpipe
- FIS World Cup – January 19-20 – Mammoth – Slopestyle
- FIS World Cup – January 20 – Lake Placid – Aerials
- FIS World Cup – January 20 – Tremblant – Moguls
- X Games – January 25 – Aspen – Halfpipe
- X Games – January 27-28 – Aspen – Slopestyle
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