Nicolas Fontaine (freestyle skis)

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Nicolas Fontaine Freestyle skiing
nation CanadaCanada Canada
birthday 5th October 1970 (age 49)
place of birth Magog , Canada
size 168 cm
Weight 70 kg
job Ski trainer
Career
discipline Aerials
status resigned
End of career February 2003
Medal table
Olympic games 0 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
World championships 1 × gold 0 × silver 0 × bronze
Olympic rings winter Olympics
silver Albertville 1992 Aerials
FIS Freestyle Skiing World Championships
gold Nagano 1997 Aerials
Placements in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup
 Debut in the World Cup December 1, 1990
 World Cup victories 13
 Overall World Cup 1. ( 1998/99 )
 Aerials World Cup 1. (1996/97, 1997/98, 1998/99,
1999/00 )
 Podium placements 1. 2. 3.
 Aerials 13 11 11
 

Nicolas "Nico" Fontaine (born October 5, 1970 in Magog , Québec ) is a former Canadian freestyle skier . He specialized in the aerials (jumping) discipline. In 1997 he became world champion in this discipline. He won the overall Freestyle World Cup once and four times in a row the discipline classification in his favorite discipline and 13 individual competitions.

biography

Athletic career

Nicolas Fontaine comes from Magog and was the youngest or last representative of the " Québec Air Force ", which dominated the aerials discipline in the 1980s and 1990s. He started skiing on the local Mont Orford. His future teammate Lloyd Langlois introduced him to freestyle skiing.

In 1990 Fontaine won his first of a total of five national championship titles and was accepted into the Canadian national team. In December of the same year he made his debut in the Freestyle Skiing World Cup in La Plagne . A few weeks later, in Breckenridge , he achieved his first podium finish in second behind his team-mate Philippe Laroche . At his first world championships in Lake Placid , he was sixth. His first major success came a year later when he first won the qualification in the demonstration competition as part of the Olympic Games in Albertville and finally secured the silver medal behind Laroche. In the following season, however, he could hardly improve, at the World Championships in Altenmarkt-Zauchensee he did not get past eighth place.

In December 1993 Nicolas Fontaine achieved his first World Cup victory in Piancavallo . With another win in Blackcomb , he finished the season third in the discipline classification. In Lillehammer , where Aerials was a regular competition on the Olympic program for the first time , he finished sixth. In the next two winters he achieved a few podium places, but could not quite meet expectations. At his third World Championships in La Clusaz , he narrowly missed winning a medal in fourth place. In January 1997, Fontaine celebrated his first win in three years and after another victory traveled as the favorite to the World Championships in Nagano . There he won the gold medal with a record number of 254.97 from two jumps. At the end of the season he emerged as the winner of the Aerials discipline for the first time in his career. While he was able to defend this title three times in a row and in 1998/99 as the first pure aerials specialist to win the overall Freestyle World Cup, he was no longer granted success at major events. At the Olympic Games on the site of his World Cup triumph, he was again considered a top favorite, but had to be content with tenth place after two unsuccessful jumps. At world championships he came only once (seventh in 1999 ) among the top ten. In January 2001 he celebrated his last three of 13 World Cup victories.

After his seventh World Championships in Deer Valley , he retired from competitive sports in February 2003 at the age of 32.

Further career

Nicolas Fontaine stayed with freestyle skiing after the end of his active career. Together with his former coach Yves Laroche , he worked on the establishment of a national training center in Lac-Beauport , which opened in 2004. In his role as Vice President of the Center, he is responsible for its financing, among other things. In addition, on behalf of the Canadian Ski Association, he created a development and recruitment program with the aim of getting young talents from gymnastics and trampoline jumping excited about freestyle jumping , especially with a view to the Vancouver Winter Olympics . As a youth coach, he attaches great importance to varied training with acrobatics and moguls without the athletes specializing too early.

After performing at ski shows until 2010, Fontaine moved from Magog to Lac-Beauport to work at the training center. In his new home he tried to get involved in politics in addition to his sporting activities, but was defeated in the local elections . At the end of March 2008, he became blind due to an inflammation of the optic nerve in his right eye. As a result of an unsuccessful operation to restore his vision, he is wearing an acrylic prosthesis .

Fontaine has two children with his wife Caroline. Son Miha (* 2004) is active as an aerials skier in the Nor-Am Cup and is considered to be a great young Canadian hope.

Style and reception

With four wins in the discipline rankings between 1997 and 2000, Nicolas Fontaine is the most successful aerials specialist in World Cup history in this regard. He achieved these titles thanks to some high-class technical achievements. At the 1997 World Championships, he clearly exceeded the previous record of 248 points with 254.97 points. As part of the Canadian Championships in 2000 on Mont Gabriel, he was the first participant to succeed in two quadruple somersaults in a row. With a view to the 1996/97 World Cup season, Fontaine began using the autosuggestion technique of sophrology with the help of an osteopath .

Nicolas Fontaine's resignation in February 2003 ended the era of the so-called " Québec Air Force ". In the years that followed, jumpers like Olivier Rochon continued to ensure good results in the World Cup, but the French-speaking province in eastern Canada was no longer able to build on the previous team strength . In 2007 Fontaine was inducted into the Canadian Ski Hall of Fame as the sixth and last representative of the "Air Force" after the brothers Yves , Alain and Philippe Laroche as well as Jean-Marc Rozon and Lloyd Langlois . During his active career, he received the cross-sport John Semmelink Memorial Award three times .

successes

Olympic games

World championships

World Cup ratings

season total Aerials
space Points space Points
1990/91 42. 15th 12. 133
1991/92 21st 20th 7th 162
1992/93 19th 77 8th. 460
1993/94 13. 84 3. 672
1994/95 25th 72 7th 572
1995/96 17th 81 6th 732
1996/97 7th 92 1. 824
1997/98 4th 96 1. 672
1998/99 1. 97 1. 292
1999/00 2. 95 1. 476
2000/01 9. 83 6th 416
2001/02 9. 83 6th 332
2002/03 72. 29 26th 172

World Cup victories

Fontaine achieved 35 podiums in the World Cup, including 13 victories:

date place country discipline
December 16, 1993 Piancavallo Italy Aerials
January 9, 1994 Blackcomb Canada Aerials
January 19, 1997 Blackcomb Canada Aerials
January 26, 1997 Breckenridge United States Aerials
March 7, 1997 Altenmarkt-Zauchensee Austria Aerials
August 1, 1997 Mount Buller Australia Aerials
March 7, 1998 Meiringen - Hasliberg Switzerland Aerials
January 10, 1999 Mont-Tremblant Canada Aerials
4th December 1999 Blackcomb Canada Aerials
March 17, 2000 Livigno Italy Aerials
January 6, 2001 Deer Valley United States Aerials
January 13, 2001 Mont-Tremblant Canada Aerials
January 13, 2001 Mont-Tremblant Canada Aerials

More Achievements

  • 5 Canadian championship titles (Aerials 1990, 1996–1998 and 2000)

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Nicolas Fontaine. Sports Reference LLC, accessed May 11, 2020 .
  2. ^ A b Nicolas Fontaine. Le Relais, accessed on May 11, 2020 (French).
  3. ↑ a b c d Olivier Bossé: Nicolas Fontaine, le champion modeste. Le Soleil , March 23, 2013, accessed May 11, 2020 (French).
  4. ↑ a b c d Nicolas Fontaine. (PDF) The Canadian Ski Hall of Fame, accessed on May 11, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Michel Marois: Les chantiers de Nicolas Fontaine. La Presse , December 15, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020 (French).
  6. ↑ a b Pierre Durocher: Nicolas Fontaine tient les sauts à bout de bras. Journal de Montréal, January 14, 2018, accessed on May 11, 2020 (French).
  7. ↑ Olivier Pellerin: Après son père Nicolas, Miha Fontaine goûte à son tour aux mondiaux. Radio Canada International , February 7, 2019, accessed May 11, 2020 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Fontaine, Nicolas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fontaine, Nico
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian freestyle skier
DATE OF BIRTH 5th October 1970
PLACE OF BIRTH Magog (Quebec)