Quebec Air Force

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Philippe Laroche on Azerbaijani postage stamp (1994)

The Québec Air Force was a group of freestyle skiers from the Canadian province of Québec . Well-known representatives such as Nicolas Fontaine , Lloyd Langlois , Jean-Marc Rozon or the Laroche brothers formed the world class in the aerials discipline in the 1980s and 1990s.

history

The term “Air Force”, coined by journalists based on the English word for air force , resulted from the sometimes particularly high air levels in freestyle jumping (aerials). One of the earliest uses was found in September 1978 in the specialist magazine Ski , where the author described a freestyle ski show by US trainer Charlie Pond as Pond's Airforce and compared the participants with the Blue Angels .

The Québec group formed in the late 1970s around Yves Laroche from Lac-Beauport and Jean-Marc Rozon from Sherbrooke . When the Freestyle Skiing World Cup was introduced , the athletes from the francophone province dominated the aerials discipline straight away. By the turn of the millennium, Québec had ten World Cup winners, who together won 98 jumps and won the discipline rankings 16 times. In addition, six world championship titles and two victories in Olympic demonstration competitions .

After the last representative, Nicolas Fontaine, resigned in February 2003, the province of Québec finally lost its dominance in the aerials discipline. Financial problems and the lack of a summer training center were cited as reasons for the lack of young people. The latter was realized in 2004 by Yves Laroche and Fontaine in Lac-Beauport. The individual members celebrate annual meetings in Québec .

Representatives and Achievements

Surname active World cup Olympic games World championships
Ges. Dis. Victories Top 3 gold silver bronze gold silver bronze
Craig Clow 1980-1984 - 1 5 14th - - - - - -
Jean Corriveau 1980-1983 - 1 9 16 - - - - - -
John Eaves 1980-1982 - 1 4th 12 - - - - - -
Nicolas Fontaine 1990-2003 1 4th 13 35 - 01 * - 1 - -
Lloyd Langlois 1983-1997 - 2 21st 57 - - 02 * 2 - 1
Alain Laroche 1982-1990 2 4th 21st 53 - - - 1 - -
Dominique Laroche 1980-1982 - - - 9 - - - - - -
Philippe Laroche 1987-1995 - 3 18th 35 01 * 1 - 2 - 1
Yves Laroche 1980-1986 - 2 10 22nd - - - - 1 -
Pierre Poulin 1981-1987 - - 4th 4th - - - - - -
Jean-Marc Rozon 1980-1991 - 2 13 25th 01 * - - 1 - -

* including a medal in a demonstration competition

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Doug Pfeiffer: Freestyle '78. New tricks and twists. In: Ski. September 1978, p. 116 (English).
  2. ↑ Ma carrière d'athlète. Yves Laroche , accessed on May 13, 2020 (French).
  3. ^ Jean-Sébastien Massicotte: "Quebec Air Force", la suite. Le Soleil , August 6, 2008, accessed May 13, 2020 (French).
  4. ↑ Michel Marois: Les chantiers de Nicolas Fontaine. La Presse , December 15, 2019, accessed May 13, 2020 (French).
  5. ↑ Sébastien Lajoie: Un saut dans le temps pour le Québec Air Force. La Tribune , September 22, 2016, accessed May 13, 2020 (French).
  6. ↑ Aerials: Fancier, flippier. In: Ski. September 1979, p. 132 (English).