Freestyle skiing | Louis-David Chalifoux takes his troubles patiently

It was a routine gesture. As he had done thousands of times before, Louis-David Chalifoux tried to brake to avoid going off the track. It was on January 27, during the parallel event of the World Cup in Waterville, in the United States.

“I braked directly on a bump with my leg extended. In fact, my leg was hyperextended,” says the 22-year-old worker from the family home in the Sillery district of Quebec.

The day before, Chalifoux had obtained his best result of the season in an individual event, with a sixth place. The rookie was gaining more and more ground on the World Cup circuit. He was also elected rookie of the year by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) at the end of the season.

“At the time, it still hurt. I held my knee, because I didn’t know what I had. I had never hurt myself in my life. It was weird,” the skier recalls.

After his race, a sports doctor from the national team evaluated him. The ligaments appeared intact. The hypothesis of a contusion of the tibia or femur was then raised. Chalifoux then consulted his mother-in-law, an orthopedist by profession. Same observation. Then, another physiotherapist came to the same conclusions. But something was wrong. The skier insisted on consulting a final specialist, in Utah, location of the next World Cup, in Deer Valley. “He said we could do a magnetic resonance imaging, just to confirm what it was. »

The MRI ultimately revealed a complete tear of the anterior cruciate ligament and part of the meniscus. His season had just ended and a long rehabilitation was beginning.

Recovery

“It was a shock. I had zero expectations for that, explains the seventh skier in the general classification before his injury. Especially after consulting four professionals who told me my ligaments were intact. It was a big shock. I experienced a moment of mourning, but it didn’t last. »

In the weeks following his operation, he had lost “a lot of muscle mass” on his right leg. Nevertheless, the skier considers himself “lucky” in his rehabilitation. Despite slight muscle tension and tendon pain, he has not noticed any significant slowdown in his fitness.

In September, he found his spatulas for the first time. It was in Chile, on a flat surface. Chalifoux is aiming for a return to competition in January, in Waterville or Val Saint-Côme, where he took seventh place last year.

Progression

Even with a shortened season, Chalifoux’s exploits between the moguls earned him the title of Outstanding Male Rookie. In 11 races he finished in the top 10 on six occasions.

He became the first Quebecer since Mikaël Kingsbury in 2010 to win this honor.

“It’s probably my mental strength and my level of confidence in my skills,” replied Chalifoux when asked why the tour coaches awarded him this award. Indeed, one coach per national team votes to elect the winners in different categories.

“When I look around me, I see people who have a lot more difficulty than me in competition. It’s difficult to deal with stress, especially in your first year in the World Cup. I think it’s one of my big strengths. I don’t let myself be affected by other skiers in training. The level is really better, so it’s easy to be impressed. But I kind of ignored that and stayed in my own zone. »

An important season

Chalifoux now trains with Philippe Marquis, a former Olympian, FIS rookie of the year in 2009 and also a victim of serious knee injuries.

But time is starting to run out, because while Chalifoux remains on the sidelines, the season continues. When he takes over in January, his teammates and rivals will have participated in three World Cups, in Ruka, Idre Fjall and Bakuriani.

The Quebecer’s current ambition boils down to “start jumping again and doing complete descents” as soon as possible.

It’s impossible to determine how Chalifoux will slide and feel on the snow in January. Freestyle skiing is a sport of repetition and the mechanical engineering student will have been on the sidelines for a year, almost to the day.

Chalifoux has circled the box for March 17, 2025, the start date of the World Championships, on his calendar. In 2023, he was the first substitute for the national team. He should take part in his first World Championships, in Saint-Moritz.

Every day he recovers a little better, he says. So he sums up his expectations like this, beyond the results: “regain my feeling of confidence on my skis in competition”. “I wish I could say that I feel in the same place as I did a year ago. »