By Krystal Hu
BEIJING (Reuters) – In a sport normally judged by gravity-defying tricks, French freestyle snowboarder Lucile Lefevre produced a memorable performance in her last Big Air competition with a simple leap into the sky.
In the qualifying round for the Olympic Big Air finals on Monday, the 26-year-old initially confused the crowd by going straight up into the air and landing without performing any tricks to be judged on.
She then showed the camera the handwritten messages written on her snowboard in English and French about her love for her family and her sport.
Lefevre returned for her second run wearing a full-body tiger suit marking the celebration of the year of the Tiger in China and the crowd cheered as they watched the human-shaped big cat soaring into the air.
The 26-year-old Lefevre, who borrowed the tiger costume from Swiss snowboarder Nicolas Huber, said she was determined to have fun after injuring herself in training.
“I decided one year ago it’s going to be my last one. Because it’s too difficult physically. I have a lot of injury and problems,” Lefevre told reporters.
Rather than dropping out of the competition, she just did straight-ups and used the opportunity to show her appreciation for her loved ones in the last few jumps of her professional career.
Once told by doctors she would not be able to do physical activities for medical reasons, Lefevre picked up a snowboard because she thought it was easy and fell in love with the sport.
“There are a lot of problems in the world…the world will be a better place for sure with more love. So it’s the kind of message I want to share,” said Lefevre, who plans to work with her dad running a sailing school in France after retiring from snowboarding.
(Reporting by Krystal Hu in Beijing, editing by Ed Osmond)
