While Perrine Laffont makes her title Hattrick on the humpback slope at the start of the Freestyle World Cup in St. Moritz, Ikuma Horishima ensures a surprise and Dephron Mogul’s legend Mikael Kingsbury.
In the end, tears flowed – and Perrine Laffont could hardly believe their luck. After her triumph 2021 in Almaty and in 2023 in Bakuriani, the 26-year-old French woman made the World Cup Hat trick on the hump slope on Wednesday (March 19, 2025) in the Engadine (Switzerland).
On the steep and demanding course on the Corviglia mountain, Laffont showed the best mix of technology, speed and jumps. With 77.92 points, she exceeded her performance from the first run again and prevailed just ahead of the Japanese Hinako Tomitaka (75.15 points) and Maia Schwinghammer (74.92) from Canada.
At Laffont all dams break
Afterwards the Olympic champion of Pyeongchang struck words. “Is that true? Did I really win?“, Laffont said in a tearful voice after her biggest competitor Jaelin Kauf (USA) had clung in the final and was only eighth.”I never thought that would happen. It’s crazy“The new and old world champion could just say before she broke off the interview.
From a German perspective, only Hanna Weese from SC Wiesloch qualified for the final, but clearly missed the second round of the top eight with 53.53 points. Teammate Annika Merz had to delete the sail the day before.
HORISHIMA DETHRONT Kingsbury impressively
The same thing happened to the German men. Linus Merz and Nicolas Weese (both SC Wiesloch) also failed in qualification and only spectators in the final. For once, it was not the most successful athlete in the history of Moguls who won gold. After six World Cup titles in series (Moguls and Dual Moguls), Mikael Kingsbury Ikuma Horishima had to give up.
Horishima again at the top after eight years
The Japanese (89.03 points) was rated best in both the technology and the jump and was also the fastest at the finish line. In the end, his lead over the Canadian Kingsbury was almost seven points. Bronze went to the South Korean Daeyoon Jung (81.76).
For Horishima it was the third world championship title after his double triumph eight years ago in the Spanish Sierra Nevada. Bronze went to the South Korean Daeyoon Jung (81.76). “I’ve been there for so long, but it’s just my third medal“, said the 27-year-old afterwards:”That means a lot to me. “