Player's Own Voice podcast: Chloé Dufour-Lapointe's freestyle farewell
Catching up and looking ahead with the all-for-one Dufour-Lapointe family
There's a lot of talk about "quiet quitting" these days, which is one luxury that athletes can seldom enjoy. For moguls skier Chloé Dufour-Lapointe, luckily, there was never any plan or desire to simply run down the clock.
Like her equally famous sisters, Chloé was determined to make every last competition count. Easier said than done, when the pandemic years threw a clunky wrench in her plans. Her training was curtailed by COVID-19 restrictions, which led to a loss of competition points, and consequently, her funding dried up just before her fourth and final Olympics at the Beijing 2022 Games.
But Dufour-Lapointe makes a serious practise of positive thinking. Despite the disappointments, she built herself an amazingly durable shield of upbeat attitude, like-minded people, and unrelenting love of skiing.
So now, as a competitive career concludes at the ripe old age of 30, Dufour-Lapointe can look back with satisfaction in the knowledge that she ended her Olympian years doing what she has always done: training hard, skiing hard, and savouring the moment.
Not that the Dufour-Lapointes are particularly big on dwelling in the past, but Canadians have been dazzled by the bump skiiers for nearly a dozen years. Justine and Chloé captured gold and silver at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and all three of them swept a World Cup podium in 2016, which really is a once-in-a-century sort of event.
Refreshingly, as she tells Anastasia Bucsis in the latest Player's Own Voice podcast, Chloé is not suffering the dreaded "what next" anxiety. She, Justine and Maxime have built a consistent brand, and the practical fashion side of their business will always be a special focus for Chloé.
Like the CBC Sports' Player's Own Voice essay series, POV podcast lets athletes speak to Canadians about issues from a personal perspective.
There is a transcript for our hard-of-hearing audience. To listen to Chloé, Aaron Brown, Kaylyn Kyle, Kurt Browning, Bianca Farella, Summer McIntosh, Beckie Sauerbrunn or any of the guests from earlier seasons, go to CBC Listen or wherever else you get your podcasts.
