After suffering a knee injury during the slopestyle event, 26-year-old French snowboarder Lucile Lefevre decided to end her competitive career in style by wearing a tiger onesie during the women’s big air qualification round at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics in honor of the Year of the Tiger. Her injury prevented her from doing any tricks but Lucile blasted a ceremonial straight air and pawed at the judges midair. Hell of a way to retire. Santé!
RAWR! 🐯
After an injury, French snowboarder Lucile Lefevre decided to have fun and wear a tiger onesie while competing in the big air competition. #WinterOlympics pic.twitter.com/c6RIUyplZ7
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 14, 2022
It was my last competition, which she honors today to be able to finish my career at the Olympic Games. An end clap that I would have liked to ride at my level, but unfortunately since my arrival here my knee has been acting up…
For the slopestyle I was able to get over the pain, but during the first big air training the pain was too strong for me to do tricks. It’s hard to train for several years on jumps that I would have liked to present during this race and not being able to do it today.
But it was unthinkable for me not to start today, I wanted to say a last goodbye to my sport which has brought me so much and to all those who believed in me. That’s why I preferred to take advantage of this moment by doing jumps with this costume 🐯
A huge thank you to all of you, especially my darling, my family, my coaches, my teammates, my sponsors, and everyone who gravitated around me. ❤️🔥
I have evolved and learned a lot since the beginning of this adventure which was sometimes not tender.. between an osteochondritis when I was little, the injuries, the sacrifices, I always did my best so thank you for always having been there to support me. –Lucile Lefevre
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