France’s Laffont wins gold in women’s freestyle moguls

Feb. 12 (UPI) — Frenchwoman Perrine Laffont took the gold medal in freestyle skiing women’s moguls at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games Sunday.

Laffont garnered 78.65 points from a combination of time, air and turns. She became the second French Winter Olympic medalist in the women’s moguls, joining Sandra Laoura who won the bronze at Torino 2006.

“I was just having fun, enjoying the moment. I told myself, ‘Perrine, you’re at the Olympics, in the finals, so just enjoy the moment and do your best.’ That’s all,” said Laffont.

Canada’s Justine Dufour-Lapointe bagged the silver with just 0.09 points behind, adding to her gold from Sochi 2014. She became the eighth woman to win more than one Olympic medal in the event.

Third place went to Yulia Galysheva of Kazakhstan (77.40). It was Kazakhstan’s first medal in freestyle skiing at the Winter Olympics.

Chinese mogulers Wang Jin and Guan Ziyan failed to reach the final through qualifications earlier on Sunday.

“I can learn from world-class skiers in terms of mentality and techniques in such a big event,” said Wang.