International Women's Sports Day

January 24^th is International Women’s Sports Day.

 

This annual day of observance was first founded in 2014 to allow sportswomen to benefit from better media coverage.

 

It became only natural to dedicate this day to all the female athletes that we have admired over the years.

 

These exceptional women bring to light sports that are, unfortunately, still little known to the general public.

 

Alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, and hump skiing are all very demanding disciplines that require a great deal of physical and personal investment.

 

Did you know that ski competition training requires athletes to work out between 2 and 3 hours every single day?

 

Very present on social media, Perrine Laffont, Olympic champion and double world champion of hump skiing, offers a behind-the-scenes look at the acrobatic sports via her YouTube channel.

If you’re curious about the sport, you can follow this champion in her daily activities, including her training sessions, what confinement looks like for her, and the lucky charms she always keeps with her during competitions.

At the age of 22, Perrine Laffont talks openly and honestly about what it means to be a skier. In an interview with online magazine MadmoiZelle, she opens up about the fact that hump skiers do not make a living from their sport.

Despite a busy schedule, the champion is pursuing studies in parallel with her skiing career. As is Laura Gauché, professional alpine skier and student at University of Savoie.

 

Laffont also confirms that there are still very few women in the world who practice the sport of hump skiing.

 

Perrine Laffont and Camille Cabrol are the only two women on the French hump ski team; all seven other members are men.

 

In other types of skiing, Alizée Baron and Taina Barioz are respectively two emblematic female figures of cross and alpine skiing.

 

To this day, in the sports world in general, female athletes are still less represented than men.

The next Olympic Games, which will take place in Tokyo later this year, announced the desire to show a more equal representation of men and women. The participation of female athletes for these upcoming Olympics has been confirmed by the organization at 48.8%.

At the Tokyo Olympic Games, four new International Federations (IF) will propose, for the first time, the same number of men's and women's events (rowing, canoe, weightlifting, and shooting).

We look forward to seeing these “innovations” at the next Olympic Games.

 We anxiously await July 23, 2021!